


Tales of Misfortune and Fame

by EnPassant4264



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Some Detail Changes, miracle box
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:40:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26637475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnPassant4264/pseuds/EnPassant4264
Summary: New akumas present different challenges for our heroes in this lighthearted, canon-style series, and somewhere in there everyone tries to sort out their feelings and crazy lives. Ladybug in particular has a lot of thinking and exploring to do with the Miracle Box she now guards. Post-Season 3, will not include the Miraculous World specials.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	1. Mathemagician

Only the steady thrumming of a sewing machine accompanied the sounds of crickets at the Dupain-Cheng bakery in the dead of night. Marinette was hard at work, fabrics strewn about her room along with a half-completed outfit on a mannequin while she focused intensely on the item she was currently threading. Floating at her shoulder was her red-and-black magical companion, who looked very concerned.  
  
"Marinette, it's officially 1 o'clock. You should really get to bed so you can be rested for tomorrow! You're starting a new unit in mathematics, which I know you struggle in. And the last thing you'd want is for Ladybug to be exhausted when an akuma strikes!"  
  
"Sorry Tikki, but the _design_ bug has bit tonight! I've got a _real_ good feeling about this one, and only my best work will be acceptable when I submit these to Mr. Agreste to critique for Fashion Week next year!"  
  
"Mr. Agreste's deadline isn't for another five months, though! Your dedication is admirable, but you need to have balance. If you run yourself ragged trying to juggle so many hats, you're eventually going to drop one, and the rest will come tumbling afterward."  
  
Marinette sat back from the machine and sighed. "I know that, Tikki, but this is the path I chose for myself. I turned down Audrey Bourgeois' offer because I didn't want to take the easy route to recognition. I want to earn it, and earning it means putting in the hard work and long nights."  
  
"Yes, but you're also only fourteen. I'm sure Mr. Agreste would understand that you have other responsibilities and priorities than working on pieces for him, unpaid I might add, even if he doesn't know that you're Ladybug."  
  
"I don't know about that Tikki, he sure doesn't seem to treat Adrien that way…"  
  
That comment garnered a frown from the kwami. "You know you can't compare his personal and professional lives like that, Marinette."  
  
"I know, but it just… makes me mad. How little his dad lets him get away from all the responsibilities _he_ set up for him. How he has to sneak out just to spend time with his friends sometimes. How miserable he is about it and how his dad doesn't seem to care."  
  
"I think there's a lot we don't understand about their situation, since we haven't experienced it ourselves. No one is perfect, and you have to remember that Gabriel Agreste is dealing with the loss of his wife and partner in raising Adrien. I doubt he knows all the right answers, even for himself."  
  
Marinette sighed, for the second time in too short of a time period. "You're right, Tikki. I wish I could understand it better, but I doubt Adrien would want to talk about it. Assuming I could even get the question out to him to begin with…" She pouted and rested her head in her hands on her desk.  
  
"You'll get there eventually. The fact that you're concerned about the difficulties in his life shows that you genuinely care about him, as much as you like to fawn over his posters."  
  
"Tikki!" the girl blurted, blushing and placing her hands on the table a little too forcefully. "Did you forget that I'm dating Luka to try and get over my crush on him – I mean, _and_ trying to get over it? I'm not dating Luka just for my own selfish means, that would be wrong. Nuh-uh, Tikki. Gaaaah, I'm such a messsss."  
  
"You're not a mess, Marinette! Everyone goes through rough patches in life, and sometimes the answer isn't clean or easy. If your experience with the Lucky Charm has taught you anything, it's that you always find a way! It may take some time, but that's okay. I know you'll figure it out."  
  
"I appreciate the words of confidence, Tikki…"  
  
"But?"  
  
"Wh-what makes you think there's a but?"  
  
Tikki gave her a look, one that reminded her that the several-thousand-year-old had a lot of experience with humans and with her in particular.  
  
"Fine, okay. I appreciate it, but that doesn't make this any less taxing for me. It feels like this whole thing with Luka is one big lie. Like, I _need_ his support right now, and he's happy to give it, but I don't really _want_ him, because you're right, I'm totally not over Adrien, and I don't know that I'll be able to be there for _Luka_ because relationships are a _commitment_ and the reason I need him is because I'm already so overwhelmed…"  
  
"And you think that wouldn't be a problem if you were dating Adrien?"  
  
"What?" the teenager said, hesitating.  
  
"A relationship with Adrien would also require commitment. We were just talking about how he has a lot of baggage, and from what I understand from the time you've spent together, Luka doesn't have much of that. Maybe what you need right now is something that's not so pressuring, where you're not constantly stressing about everything being perfect and doubting if you're good enough for it when mistakes inevitably happen. Luka likes you just the way you are and doesn't ask anything more of you. You don't necessarily have to get over Adrien, but maybe now just isn't a good time to try anything with him when you have so much else to worry about."  
  
"But Tikki… what if he never becomes available again? What if he decides that Kagami is really his soulmate, or some other girl he hasn't met yet?"  
  
"Then he'll be happy, won't he? Isn't that what you want for him?"  
  
"Yes, but… will I be happy? And what about our hamster!"  
  
"Only time will tell, Marinette. You could just as easily find yourself happy with Luka, or some other boy you haven't met yet. Or even… Chat Noir," she said with a giggle.  
  
"Let's not talk about Chat Noir…" The girl let out a third, much larger sigh. "I guess you're right. I should take things one step at a time. I have much bigger concerns than boy troubles right now."  
  
"Like how it's almost 1:30?"  
  
"Huh?! Well… all this relationship talk made the design bug fly away anyway," she said, proceeding to yawn as she began to clean up her textiles.

* * *

Meanwhile, Adrien himself lay awake in bed, unable to sleep as many thoughts swam through his head.  
  
"Hey, Plagg, you awake?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Okay, sorry to distu-" he started automatically, "hey, wait a second!"  
  
The blond-haired boy sat up, scooching to place his back against the headrest. He picked up his kwami by his head from the tiny pillow on the bed next to him, who proceeded to squirm comically against his grip as if he couldn't just phase through it.  
  
"Do you mind?" the black being whined. "I need my beauty sleep!"  
  
"Plagg, it's kinda serious."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Ever since he had sneaked out and inadvertently left Adrien to face his worst nightmare alone during the Sandboy attack, Plagg had been trying to make some sort of effort to be a more attentive partner to his wielder. He would never _tell_ Adrien that this was the case, but the boy wasn't stupid and it didn't take long for him to catch on.  
  
"Well, go on, then," the kwami said after an awkward moment of silence.  
  
Adrien let go and clasped his hands together nervously. "Have you ever… felt used, by someone who wielded you?"  
  
"I mean, whenever my wielder says, 'Claws out', I get sucked into the ring, sometimes against my will, to be used for whatever purposes they desire. Do you mean like that?"  
  
"Are you saying that you feel used by me?"  
  
"No, it's… okay, not like that, then. You mean really used."  
  
"Like a tool, Plagg."  
  
"Well, first you must understand that someone willing to abuse a miraculous like that would never be considered worthy of holding it by a Guardian. Poor Nooroo and Duusu are the first time in at least several hundred years that a kwami has suffered such a fate. What's more, my miraculous, above all others, requires the strongest awareness of the consequences of using its power. Destruction on-command is never something you can take lightly."  
  
"Really? You almost never keep tabs on whether I'm being responsible as Chat Noir. You don't even like to transform that much."  
  
"Hey, there can't be any destruction if you're not transformed. It would certainly make my life easier! But really, it's because you don't need me catsitting you. You're very conscious of when and how to make proper use of your Cataclysm, which makes you one of the best wielders of my ring. Not every Black Cat wielder is like that: they may all fight for noble causes, but some are willing to sacrifice much more than others to get there. Some are the type that hunt alone in the darkness, keeping themselves safe by distancing from all connections… including to me, their own kwami. Some are the type who use the miraculous to forcefully remove any obstacles in their way, regardless of reason. With those people, yes, I would say that I felt used."  
  
Adrien didn't respond to that immediately. He mulled over Plagg's unusually thoughtful words in relation to what he wanted to say next.  
  
"I've been thinking a lot recently, and I might have finally found the words to say how I feel about… a lot of my life. What you described only confirms this even more. That I'm being used by most of the people close to me."  
  
"Hold up, you're only fourteen, I don't think that's comparable to a kwami who has been on this planet for almost four thousand."  
  
"It's not a competition, I just wanted some perspective on… healthy relationships. I don't think this is out of malice on anyone else's part, even if it feels pretty rotten for me. My father cares for me, I've no doubt about that, but he just doesn't see things the way I do. The things he expects from me – learning the piano, Chinese, fencing, modeling for his company – are all things that adults find valuable, and that make him look good to big wigs like Audrey Bourgeois to be teaching his kid. And don't get me wrong, I want him to be happy, but I don't get much of a choice in the matter. He doesn't understand the importance of letting me be a kid and decide for myself what makes me happy and what I want to do with my life.  
  
"Speaking of Bourgeois, there's Chloé…" he sighed. "Yeah, no surprise there. I really wish I could understand what goes through that girl's head. Gosh, I'm still reeling over how she became Miracle Queen. But I don't want to get sidetracked. I know I mean a lot to her, but it's only ever about what _I_ can do for _her_. How _I_ make _her_ feel, rather than her caring about my own feelings. I know it's how she's been raised, but that still doesn't do anything for my happiness, you know? On that line of thinking, don't even get me started on Lila."  
  
He sat there for a little bit with a look that he had something more to say.  
  
"Well, this seems like a good time for a quick cheese break!" Plagg exclaimed. He phased into one of the several cupboards and grabbed two slices of his favorite camembert before returning. "Here, I got one for you too!"  
  
"You know I don't eat that stuff."  
  
"Yeah, I do!" he agreed, inhaling the first slice and starting on the second immediately.  
  
"Anyway, I think this is what confuses me so much about Marinette, too."  
  
"Wow, you must be crazier than I thought if you think _Marinette_ is using you."  
  
"What? No! I didn't mean it like that. Marinette is great. She's always there for her friends when they need her, myself included, and she always finds a way to make things work and do what's right. I meant every word when I said all those things about her being our everyday Ladybug. You know I would never say something like that as a joke; it would be an insult to Milady."  
  
"So what's the big deal, then?"  
  
"Her crush on me. I'd appreciate if you stopped laughing at me for not figuring it out sooner, by the way. She didn't make it easy with how she tends to avoid me, can never form complete sentences around me, and how often she contradicts herself or denies it whenever the subject comes up. That's the problem, really: I don't know what she wants. Does she have a crush on Adrien, the sheltered rich boy who doesn't know how to make friends, or Adrien, teen model extraordinaire? Because one is me and the other is a trophy."  
  
"You could always ask her yourself."  
  
"That's not a good idea. She's dating Luka and I'm dating Kagami and I don't want anyone getting the wrong impression. And honestly, it… scares me. I don't want to risk finding out that she just idolizes me like every other teenage girl in the city. Her friendship means too much to me to let it be ruined like that."  
  
"Maybe it's for the better that you're both spoken for, then. Although it's going to be a heck of a show watching you and Kagami figure out romance!"  
  
"Plagg!" Adrien rose his voice, blushing, and started trying to whack the kwami with his pillow to no success. Plagg started cackling as he dodged the swings.  
  
"Just saying, if you're as easily tricked with her as you were with me tonight, your next product line's not going to be fragrance, it'll be doormats!"  
  
"You think you're so funny, huh?"  
  
"I'm laughing, aren't I? Chat Noir's sense of humor isn't a solo effort, you know!"  
  
Suddenly, there was a noise downstairs, and both of them shut up really quickly. Neither of them knew whether someone was actually wake, or if it was because of them, but it wasn't worth finding out. "Guess your playtime's over. When did it get to be 1:30? We should probably be trying to get back to sleep anyway."  
  
"Eh, gives me time to digest my cheese."  
  
Both of them settled back into laying positions and tried to relax.  
  
"And Plagg? Thanks for listening tonight."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I just couldn't stand the thought of you moping around all day tomorrow."  
  
"Sure thing, Plagg," Adrien echoed, knowing it wasn't actually true. Although he was facing away from his smaller partner, he smiled, and then closed his eyes.

* * *

The next day saw two tired teenagers as the last to enter their first-period mathematics class, to the surprise of none of their classmates. Adrien had a busy life, after all, and Marinette couldn't keep track of the time of day even if a clock was taped to the back of Adrien's head, given how much she liked to stare at it.  
  
"Question for the class," began Mr. Plusseau from his place at the smartboard at the front of the room. This caught everyone's attention, most of which was quickly diverted to his physical features, namely his lack of height and his grizzled brown sideburns that attached to a bushy beard on his neck, leaving a prominent exposed chin. He was a new instructor this year, and the novelty of his face had yet to get old for most of the class.  
  
He shortly turned and began writing on the board with a stylus. "If we have the equation 15 – 4x = 3, what is the value of X?"  
  
"Oh, that's easy," Alya responded instantly, taking out her phone and typing very quickly into it. "3."  
  
"Ah, if it's so easy, then you can come up to the board and show us how you solved it," Plusseau said grumpily, picking up a stylus from the board and offering it forward.  
  
Alya shook her head and held her phone out for everyone to see. "I used a free online equation solver. Pretty simple, really."  
  
"And do you know _how_ your equation solver did that?"  
  
"Do we really need to?" Chloé commented. "It's not like we're ever going to be without our phones to do it ourselves."  
  
Plusseau grew tense. Although the class looked somewhat uneasy, he could tell that they didn't really disagree with that spoiled brat.  
  
"Alright, Ms. Césaire, if I have 15 boysenberries and there are 4 guests at my house, how many berries should I give each one so that no two, including myself, have the same amount?"  
  
"Erm… well…"  
  
"I figured. All the technology in the world can't help you if you don't know what you need to tell it. Now, let's dissect what a variable is and how we go about solving one."

* * *

Light began pooling into a dark observatory as a lens opened its cover blocking a large window. It was a display that always pleased the one inhabitant of the room, as it heralded the time to reap what misery the chaotic elements of life had thrown in some poor fool's path.  
  
"Technology advances so quickly, for better or for worse," Hawk Moth announced only to his audience of white butterflies. "We become capable of so much more than our own means, and yet, some only choose to indulge in convenience and squander their potential. It all adds up to a perfect equation for my akumas!"  
  
One butterfly flew into the palm of his hand, which he clasped with his other and imbued with a dark power that blackened the butterfly to a deep purple. His empowered minion knew its task, and instinctively flew out of the gap in the center of the view to the streets of Paris.  
  
"Fly away my little akuma, and evilize this old-fashioned professor!"  
  
  
The ringing bell indicated that class was over, and Plusseau leered as almost every student immediately withdrew their mobile phones and engrossed themselves in them. _Spoiled kids… all so reliant on technology. They'll never amount to anything if they can't think for themselves…_  
  
As the last of them left the room, a black butterfly flew in through the window and embedded itself in the same stylus that he was still gripping tightly. The purple outline of a butterfly appeared over the blushed region around his angry eyes.  
  
"Mathemagician, I am Hawk Moth. I can grant you the power to show these despicable children how to use their brains rather than relying on those of technology. Of course, Ladybug and Chat Noir are going to try and stop you. What I ask is that when you eliminate them from your equation, you deliver their miraculouses to me. Is this agreeable to you?"  
  
"Yes, Hawk Moth. Together, we shall be greater than the sum of our parts!"  
  
With that, the math teacher's body became coated in the same dark substance of the akuma.

* * *

Marinette's walking continued to be dreary on her way towards Ms. Mendeleiev's class. Along with the lack of sleep, she was having a hard time swallowing Tikki's advice from last night. Not that she didn't believe her kwami, but her emotions were more stubborn than that. Nothing could stop the burning passion that arose in her every time she looked at that beautiful golden hair, or heard those sweet and caring words, or–  
  
"Girl, what's got you so down today?" Beside and slightly to the front of her was Alya, who was trying to urge her to move along.  
  
"I was just up late last night working on some fashion stuff, nothing to worry about."  
  
"You say that a lot, Marinette, and you should know that I know you well enough to know when you're hiding something. There's no fooling this reporter's eyes, Dupain-Cheng."  
  
"Darn, you sure have me down pat," _minus the massive secret identity that I've steered you far far away from,_ "but it's nothing you don't already know."  
  
"Still feeling guilty about Luka and regretting over Adrien, huh? Maybe you should look into therapy, if it's affecting your ability to function so much."  
  
_If only it were that simple and the complications didn't take away all the time I might have for that,_ she thought. "Maybe, but that would require accepting that I'm so out-of-control of myself that I actually need to see a professional before I'm even in lycée where they're usually available. How sad is that?"  
  
"Not sad at all, that's what they're there for. If no one else was the same as you, they'd be out of a job, yeah?"  
  
At this point, they had reached the door to the classroom. Since Alya was in front, she opened the door to usher Marinette through; however, the smaller girl declined.  
  
"I'm going to use the bathroom. I didn't really have time before school today."  
  
She could see a look of concern appear on the brunette's face, and she guessed that Alya knew that she didn't actually need to use the bathroom. Nonetheless, the other girl nodded and proceeded inside.  
  
Fate had other plans in store, though, as Marinette had only gotten halfway across the courtyard before the sounds of screaming and blasting could be heard upstairs. She hurried to her destination, hiding in a stall and opening her purse for her favorite companion to join her at eye-level.  
  
"Others like me? Do you really think there can be anyone else as clumsy and awkward all the time as me?"  
  
"Of course! Humans come in all shapes and sizes, and not everyone will turn out so coordinated or smooth-tongued as they might like. All it means is that they may need more support than others to be the best they can be, and that's fine! Besides, there are very few who are as crafty or determined as you can be, and none of them can do what you do, Marinette!"  
  
"Right! And it sounds like it's time for me to do what I do best! Tikki, spots on! Yeah!"  
  
As her signature black-spotted red costume spread over her arms, body, and legs, Marinette immediately felt refreshed. She may be clumsy as Marinette, but everything changed now that Ladybug was on the scene.

  
  
She ran out and used her yo-yo to pull herself onto the second floor where the commotion occurred. There was no sign of the villain, but many of the doors looked like they had been opened forcefully. Her first thought was to go back downstairs to the classroom she was supposed to be in as Marinette to check on her friends.  
  
Inside, she saw that almost everyone was on the floor, unmoving. Only Ms. Mendeleiev, Sabrina, and Max were still standing, albeit all leaned over. The science teacher was making a phone call, presumably to the authorities, while the students were huddled over their closest friends: Chloé and Kim, respectively.  
  
"Max, what's going on here? Is everyone alright?" she asked, since he was closest to the door.  
  
"Ladybug! A wizard-looking man is shooting magic at people that makes us solve a math problem! It was simple for me, but it appears that those who cannot solve them are placed into eternal slumber until they do."  
  
"That must be Mr.– Math Teacher Guy," she said ineloquently, remembering that Ladybug isn't supposed to know what a student would about the college.  
  
"Minot Plusseau," Mendeleiev corrected unenthusiastically.  
  
"There is no Minot Plusseau in this scenario. There is only the Mathemagician," an unusual voice boomed from outside. A man adorned in indigo robes appeared in the doorway shortly afterward. The man's mutton chops-beard combo had grown extensively, almost all the way to the floor, but retained their brown color, and his chin remained exposed although it was unusually pale. The upper half of his face was shaded by his large wizard hat, though it appeared to be supernaturally dark so that nothing except his glowing brown eyes were visible. In his hand, he held a long, white stick that resembled a pen… or a stylus.  
  
_That must be where the akuma is!_ Ladybug noticed while she brought out her yo-yo, swinging it in its shield-forming circle to protect the students behind her while they went to hide behind the teacher's desk.  
  
"Doesn't magic defy science and math? A contradiction like that ought to poof out of existence!" she quipped. Not her best work, but maybe on some errant hope it would actually come true and they could all go back to their normal days.  
  
"I hope your skills are greater than your logic, Ladybug."  
  
"Nah, that was just her attempt at a joke!" a voice that Ladybug instantly recognized said from behind the villain. Mathemagician moved to the side of the door and turned to see that Chat Noir was leaning casually against the railing, swinging the loose end of his belt with a cocky grin on his face. "She should really leave the humor to me. Trust me, you'll know when she's using that logical head of hers when you're on the floor without your akuma."  
  
That angered the wizard, who shot a purple blast of magic wreathed in brown numbers and math symbols at the black-clad superhero. He dodged to the side, and Ladybug seized the opportunity to go on the offensive, swinging her yo-yo at Mathemagician's staff. The counterattack was also dodged, and in the same motion he took aim at his attacker and fired another blast.  
  
The superheroine rolled out of the way and weaved between or blocked the further blasts that came her way, while the attacker backstepped to a place where he could see Chat Noir through the window next to the door. Only, he wasn't there, and Mathemagician nearly fell backwards leaning to avoid the staff that popped up from beneath the sill and telescoped through the window right at him. Without losing a beat, and contrary to what Ladybug was expecting from an old wizard, he placed his free hand on the ground and flipped backwards, kicking Chat's staff out of his way and landing on his feet ready to fire back.  
  
Chat was the one that had to duck then, before pulling himself onto the sill with both hands into a catlike crouch. This was unwise, at it left him open to a follow-up blast that knocked him down and out onto the floor.  
  
"Chat!" Ladybug exclaimed. She cleared the distance to the windowsill in a single jump, deploying her yo-yo shield again to block a shot Mathemagician took while she was airborne. However, the cat hero was already waking up when she glanced out at him. "Oh, looks like _someone's_ a smart kitty."  
  
"Well of course! My claws aren't the only thing sharp about me."  
  
Mathemagician didn't care for their banter, and with a pound of his staff, his magic lifted him into the air, where he fired more blasts at Ladybug while trying to get a good angle.  
  
"Your wit, sure, but I never would've guessed your brain. It should be telling you to get in here and help with the supervillain right about now."  
  
"Right," he agreed, but said supervillain flew out of the door as he was headed towards it, hovering up the center of the courtyard on the second floor. _That's smart, using his flight to gain area control._  
  
Chat Noir dodged more blasts while performing acrobatics to jump up the stairs and then onto and over the railing to the balcony, giving Ladybug the opportunity to leave the classroom and launch herself with her yo-yo up to him. She ran left while Chat ran right, forcing Mathemagician to divide his attention and move backwards towards the far side to see them. They also took out their magic earbud communicators.  
  
"So, logic bug, what's our plan?"  
  
"Well, humor monkey, the akuma's in his staff. You're going to have to Cataclysm it, but it'll be hard to get away from him when that's also his weapon. I think it's time for my…  
  


  
"Lucky Charm!" she shouted, throwing her yo-yo into the air to exude a multitude of hearts. The hearts then formed together into a long stick, curved near the end, that was red with black spots, which then fell into Ladybug's hands.

  
  
"A hockey stick? What am I supposed to do with this?"  
  
"Can you cast spells with it like he can with that stylus?" Chat suggested.  
  
"No, but…" she pondered, looking around. _Aha!_ The dirt courtyard… Chat Noir… Mathemagician's staff… her hockey stick…  
  
"Alright, kitty, time to play in the sand. I need you to…" she lowered her voice so that their enemy wouldn't hear. "I'll distract Mathemagician. Got it?"  
  
"Great plan as always, Milady."  
  
Ladybug stowed the hockey stick onto her back, where it stuck magically, and swung out over the courtyard while Chat dropped below. She sailed back and forth through the air, jumped off of the pillars, and ran along the upper hallway to avoid magic blasts, all the while goading the akumatized villain with her yo-yo and by spewing certain "profanities".  
  
"Two to the third power is six! One plus one is eleven! Zero divided by zero is just the percentage sign!"  
  
"Grah, your technology has truly dulled your mind to all mathematical meaning!"  
  
While the black-spotted heroine danced around her enraged foe, the supercat had his staff out and was running it through the dirt in planned lines and curves.  
  
The glowing outline of a butterfly appeared over the darkness surrounding Mathemagician, but somehow didn't light up any of his face. "Don't allow Ladybug to taunt you into irrational thought!" Hawk Moth spoke through the connection. "Stay focused on your victory and bring me those miraculouses!"  
  
Having snapped back to reality, Mathemagician dropped down onto the second floor with Ladybug and changed his fighting style. While he was still firing blasts at her, he was mixing it with martial arts using his staff as a physical weapon and as a fulcrum for him to swing on to accelerate attacks from his limbs. She was forced onto the defensive, having to keep her yo-yo as a shield with no opening to attack.  
  
Fortunately, Chat Noir had finished his job and vaulted up to join them with his staff. He landed on the railing next to Mathemagician on all fours, causing a jerk reaction from him to swing his staff towards the hero and power up a magic blast. However, Chat was swift and dropped to hang off the rail by one hand, feet on the walkway, and used his free hand to point down at the courtyard.  
  
Drawn in massive lines in the dirt was the equation "Solve: x – x = x / x". The math teacher only needed to pay attention to it for a moment, because in that instant, Ladybug grabbed her hockey stick, hooked it in the crevice in-between his hand and the staff away from his body, and yanked back. Mathemagician's arm was folded back and his wrist rotated, the staff hitting him solidly on the shoulder with its magic still active. He fell to the floor, asleep from his own power, with an equation that been designed to be unsolvable.  
  
"What?!" Hawk Moth cursed from his chamber. "Wake up! Why aren't you immune to your own power?!"  
  
Chat Noir hurdled the railing like a pro athlete, called out "Cataclysm!" to form and catch the black ball of destruction, and then touched the stylus staff to crumble it and cause the akuma to fly free.

  
  
"No more evildoing for you, little akuma," Ladybug said, opening her yo-yo like a ladybug opens its wings to the glowing white compartment within and swinging it to charge up.  
  
"Time to de-evilize!"  
  
The yo-yo caught the akuma in one swoop, closing up to perform its magic purification.  
  
"Gotcha!"  
  
She opened the compartment again, and a regular white butterfly flew up and away. "Bye-bye, little butterfly!"  
  
Next, she grabbed the hockey stick and threw it in the air as well.  
  
"Miraculous Ladybug!"  
  
It burst into a swarm of ladybugs, which spread out in groups to restore all the damage. One cleaned up the courtyard, and the rest flew around to the classrooms. The one that flew through Mendeleiev's window fixed it, and then it washed over all the students, who all slowly woke up.  
  
A dark substance covered Mathemagician and dissolved into the ground, leaving an awoken Mr. Plusseau on the ground. "Wha… why am I out here?"  
  
"Pound it!" both miraculous holders cheered as they bumped fists.

* * *

Hawk Moth stood tensely in his chamber. "You may have solved this problem today, Ladybug and Chat Noir, but eventually, I'll find an akuma that you won't have an answer to!" He clenched his hand, and the lens lighting up his observatory closed, leaving him in the darkness of defeat.

* * *

At the start of the following school day, Marinette looked solemnly at her homework as she entered Plusseau's classroom. The whole page was filled with her scribbling as she attempted to solve the problems completely by hand, but quantity was not quality and much of it was her failing to figure out the right answers.  
  
Naturally, she was the last one to arrive, again, so hers was the last one on the pile. Chloé, sitting in the front, tried to sneak a peak at it, but Plusseau was at his desk and swiftly grabbed the pile to look at himself. His eyes widened in surprise at the amount of work on the bluenette's paper, as well as on many of the others beneath it.  
  
"Excuse me, Ms. Dupain-Cheng, but you did all of your calculations by hand?"  
  
"Ah, yeah, you said to solve it without a calculator, and I'm not good at mental math so I had to write down everything. I hope it's not a problem…"  
  
The short man with sideburns let out a chuckle before facing straight forward to address the whole class. "Well, it seems I didn't make my intentions clear. When I say not to use a calculator, I'm referring to having a computer solve the equation _for_ you. There is no problem with performing simple operations on a device in order to speed up your work. In fact, it is quite beneficial to be able to focus on the harder aspects of the problem and not worry about making simple arithmetical errors that could de-rail your entire solution."  
  
As Marinette took her seat, Adrien waved from his spot behind hers to get her attention. "Hey, Marinette. Math is actually my worst subject as well, so if you want, maybe we could study together sometime?"  
  
Pink immediately made its way to her face, and she froze for a full second before turning her seat around to try and speak to him.  
  
"Uhhh, I'd love you– I mean, I love too! Um, not the number two, my favorite number is actually seven, but I'm not saying that two is bad, if you like two. Two is a good number too, ha ha– Aah!"  
  
Once again, Alya had elbowed her to get her head on straight. "What she means is, she'd love to come over and study with you. But would your dad allow it?"  
  
Adrien leaned a little closer, proportionally increasing the amount of blushing in the girl he had addressed. "He was okay with Lila entering my room when she lied about me needing her help with mathematics. I might be able to convince him, but make sure Lila doesn't find out about it."  
  
Just the mention of that two-faced snake caused Marinette to sober up. _Of course she would…_ "That sounds great, then," _if for no other reason than to make sure Lila doesn't get another opportunity to do it._  
  
"Awesome! I'll let you know what he says."  
  
It took a moment for Marinette to realize what she had just agreed too. _Studying, in Adrien's room, just the two of us!_ She felt the heat rising into her face again, which accelerated when Alya nudged her again and winked. _Why did I say yes, there's no way I'm learning any mathematics if I'm alone with him! And what's Luka going to think…?_  
  
She moaned and rested her forehead on the desk in front of her, already tuning out the math lesson that just started as her feelings swam in turmoil.


	2. Meet the Miraculouses: Intro

It was another late night for Marinette. As much as she wanted to heed Tikki's advice and get more sleep, some matters simply could not be handled where anyone might see her. Right now, she was on the floor of her bedroom, carefully inspecting a full-rounded red capsule with exactly nineteen black spots spread across its surface. The Miracle Box.

As much as she was pained by the mere fact that the box was sitting in front of her, for many reasons, she knew that she couldn't simply hide it away and hope that everything would work itself out. Hawk Moth would only continue to grow stronger, so she had no choice but to use everything at her disposal to stop him. With the Box under her care, obtaining miraculouses for distribution was no longer a risk to anyone but herself, so long as she could continue to keep everything about her civilian and superhero lives far away from each other.

Nothing out of the ordinary for Marinette, really. She hated it, she absolutely hated it, but she knew no other way to do it. It was all her fault anyway for making the mistakes that allowed Hawk Moth to find Master Fu, empower Miracle Queen, and get all of her friends' identities exposed.

A nuzzle from Tikki reminded her that she was here to complete a task and not fall into another pit of despair like had happened so frequently since she obtained the Miracle Box. Sometimes, she thought the real miracle was that Hawk Moth hadn't akumatized her for it yet. It would be everything he ever wanted placed in the palm in his hand.

 _Focus on the positives,_ she told herself. Both she and Chat Noir had grown strong enough to Unite the powers of multiple miraculouses and stay sane to tell the tale afterward, so the abilities of the exposed miraculous holders were still available to them. There were still six miraculouses that had yet to be distributed, plus the Rabbit Miraculous which remained dormant in the hands of Alix Kubdel.

That was another indecision floating around in Marinette's brain right now. As the new Guardian, she would be technically within her rights to demand the miraculous back for safekeeping until the time was right. The best-kept secret is one never told, and she needed to have as much control over the knowledge/use of miraculouses as possible to keep them out of Hawk Moth's sights, right? That's what Master Fu and Tikki have been emphasizing this whole time. That was why she had been only loaning the others their miraculouses to begin with, so that they would be safe in case of a brainwashing situation. Miracle Queen's summons would have been worthless if Hawk Moth hadn't already obtained the Miracle Box at the time.

There was also the matter of exactly _who_ had been revealed, because that made it much riskier to hand out new miraculouses. Assuming Chloé hadn't outright told him, Marinette was certain that it wouldn't take Hawk Moth much time to piece together that everyone she had chosen was part of a singular friend group, most of whom attended Collége Françoise Dupont where he had successfully activated over twenty akumas. She needed people she could trust, but if anyone else got exposed, it would only further whittle down the possibilities on which individual was the mastermind with the Miracle Box and Ladybug Miraculous. She know that whatever magic covered up many of the connections people could/did make between their civilian and super identities wasn't perfect: Alya had almost immediately figured out that Nino was Carapace, plus there was that crazy alternate future where Adrien figured out she was Ladybug due to her signing a gift.

On the other hand… this was keeping all of her eggs in one basket. Another mistake could cost her the box the same way it had cost Master Fu, and there wasn't anyone else she could entrust with it. She didn't really trust _herself_ with it, which in a roundabout way was actually a reason to share the miraculouses – it shared the responsibility. There would be less pressure on her, tactically and emotionally, if the miraculouses were spread out rather than all being within the Box.

Plus, there was already concrete evidence in favor of this approach. Chat Noir obviously kept his miraculous safe with no oversight on her part, and having seen Bunnyx's Burrow, it was clear that she held onto her miraculous full-time too… a decision that Ladybug herself would make at some point in the future. Who's to say the other miraculouses aren't the same way?

Although, the reason for that was probably that the Burrow was a pocket dimension completely safe from anyone and anything unless she was actively using a portal in that area. Bunnyx also didn't have to worry about de-transforming after using her power. Was the wise choice to wait until everyone was an adult? That would be… a long time, and she expected there was more to it than "turn 18" because miraculouses didn't have to follow the simple societal definition of an adult.

In any case, one task was clear to her: She was going to need to familiarize herself with each and every miraculous in the box. Master Fu had explained them to her on a surface-level, and only gone into more detail on each one when she had chosen it for use. Unfortunately, it appeared that Hawk Moth had stolen the translated grimoire, so until she was able to get it back, her only sources of information would be the limited knowledge of the kwamis themselves, or taking the risk of letting someone use a miraculous in the field.

She figured it would be a good start to talk with all of the kwamis and let them see more of the modern world, since it had been so long since most of them had been deployed. Conversely, she wanted to separate her duties as Ladybug and as the Guardian, so Tikki was currently inside of the box socializing with the others.

The design the Miracle Box decided to take under her ownership was intriguing, to say the least. Instead of the "main" miraculouses being together and the twelve Chinese zodiac ones in an outer ring, every miraculous was stored in one of the black dots which served as compartments, labelled by their symbol only when the box was in use. Her own miraculous had its place on the very top, and Plagg's and Pollen's sat in a duo on the bottom. The other sixteen were in two alternating rings of spots around the middle, in no particular order it seemed.

Marinette ran her fingers over each compartment as she identified each one by its symbol:

The Miraculouses of the Fox and Turtle needed no recollection, for Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Master Fu himself had put them to great use.

Miraculous of the Bee, a hair pin inhabited by the kwami Pollen, embodying the concept of domination. Its power, Command, grants a single-use sting that enthralls whatever gets stabbed to obey the wielder's orders.

Miraculous of the Snake, a bangle inhabited by the kwami Sass, embodying the concept of perfection. Its power, Second Chance, allows the wielder to set a point in time and travel back to that point as many times as they wish, so that they can achieve the perfect result. It was probably the most dangerous of the miraculouses and definitely one of the hardest to use, so she was inclined to hide it away. Chat Noir used it well as Snake Noir, so would it be worth considering letting him keep it as a failsafe if something were to happen to her? For all of the responsibilities she felt she had to put on herself, one that wasn't debatable was her being needed to purify the akumas. A backup could be essential.

Miraculous of the Dragon, a choker inhabited by the kwami Longg, embodying the concept of religion. It grants the powers of Wind Dragon, Water Dragon, and Lightning Dragon, which transform the wielder in a sentient storm of the chosen element, each able to be used before transforming back. She didn't understand the relationship between religion and the miraculouses at first; she wasn't particularly religious herself, but this miraculous business would have befuddled any belief systems she had due to their extraordinary powers. Master Fu told her that was exactly the premise. "The unifying factor between religion, mythology, and folklore is belief in the supernatural," he had said. "They all give form, whether it be as a human, god, monster, or something else, to forces beyond the human understand. Is that not how the miraculouses function, calling upon fundamental elements of the universe into the form of cute, floating animals that grant people powers and silly costumes?" He added that because of this, the Dragon Miraculous was the strongest of all, besides the Ladybug and Black Cat of course, in terms of raw power. The elements it granted reign over were those associated with the beings of greatest strength and human influence, such as Zeus, Enki, and Fūjin.

Miraculous of the Rabbit, a pocket watch inhabited by the kwami Fluff, embodying the concept of time. Its power, Burrow… well, she had just thought about that, hadn't she? The miraculous wasn't even in the box, Alix had it as her family heirloom, and it had been established that it was only to be activated as a trump card, when all else had failed.

Miraculous of the Horse, a pair of glasses inhabited by the kwami Kaalki, embodying the concept of space. Its power, Voyage, forms portals between any two points in space. It would very useful if it wasn't limited to a single use on anyone she would give it to (herself included), but as it is, it might be better to let it rest for a bit.

Miraculous of the Monkey, a circlet inhabited by the kwami Xuppu, embodying the concept of contradiction. Its power, Uproar, summoned a toy that would neutralize miraculous-based powers of whomever it first made contact with. This made it one of the most interesting of the miraculouses; Master Fu was the one who made the decision to grant it the one time it had been used, and in all of three minutes it had curbstomped the akuma that had outplayed and trapped the entire rest of the heroes' side. Marinette wasn't sure why Fu kept it as a last resort, because she loved the idea of being able to mop up the floor with akumas like that. She supposed that was a wiser choice now, since Hawk Moth knew what it could do and would prioritize its retrieval almost as much as the Ladybug and Black Cat he wanted so badly.

Miraculous of the Mouse, a necklace inhabited by the kwami Mullo, embodying the concept of replication. Its power, Multitude, divides the wielder up into twenty-some-odd copies of him/herself. She had used it once to great effect in pulling off a plan – after all, if you want something done right, do it yourself, and twenty herselves made a great team. It would be a useful Unite, but she could potentially find another wielder for it if she wanted to Unite with something else. Going triple wasn't in the cards right now.

The ones after this were the ones she hadn't learned about in-depth:

Miraculous of the Ox, a nose ring inhabited by the kwami Stompp, embodying the concept of action. It obviously specialized in strength of some kind, but the specific term action suggested to her that there was something more to it.

Miraculous of the Tiger, a panjas inhabited by the kwami Roaar, embodying the concept of ego. Not egotism, but the Latin term ego, meaning self. Definitely a concept debated in philosophy a lot, but she had no clue what sort of power it would manifest.

Miraculous of the Goat, a pair of hair clips inhabited by the kwami Ziggy, embodying the concept of sacrifice. She was not in any rush for anyone to equip this one; sacrifice sounded like a scary and, if not used correctly, harmful power to receive.

Miraculous of the Dog, a collar necklace inhabited by the kwami Barkk, embodying the concept of loyalty. Definitely one to give out; obviously, a worthy wielder of this one wouldn't betray her, and its power probably relied on being used in a group.

Miraculous of the Pig, a pearl anklet inhabited by the kwami Daizzi, embodying the concept of prohibition. It sounded quite interesting, and she figured she would know when the right time to use it was, like many of the miraculouses she handed out in the past.

Lastly, the Miraculous of the Rooster, a thumb ring inhabited by the kwami Orikko, embodying the concept of causation. It was hard to wrap her head around the idea, because actions having consequences was just common sense, right? Master Fu explained that this was exactly why the miraculous was especially critical. Causation wasn't just important to human decision-making: decisions wouldn't exist without it. Logic wouldn't exist, so neither would math or engineering, and even the physical interactions those things exploit rely on cause and effect.

* * *

Before she got adventurous, she needed to have a discussion with a specific kwami about recent events. Tonight, she was going to wear the Bee Miraculous. As she adorned the hair comb, a sparkling yellow light appeared and transformed into the bee-like kwami Pollen.

"At your service, Guardian," she said with a bow.

"Pollen. I have an important question for you."

"I tried to warn Chloé about misusing the miraculous, My Lady."

"How…"

"Did I know? It's the exact question I would ask after a situation like this. She violated the principles of the miraculous, her worth to the cause must be judged."

"It sounds so… harsh, when you say it like that." Saying the words caused Marinette to realize why. "Do you feel hurt, Pollen?"

"I'm fine, My Lady," she responded, with little heart behind her words. "Do not worry about me."

"First, please don't call me that. A certain superpowered kitty cat loves to use it and… it's a sensitive topic. Second, of _course_ I'm going to worry about you. It was my mistake that allowed her to use you to begin with, and then it was my decision to give her the miraculous to use after that. Or should I say, it was another mistake to do that."

Pollen flew closer to Marinette's face. "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, My La– great Guardian. It was not a mistake to attempt the betterment of someone you know when the opportunity arose. If I may be so forward, speaking as the one whom she wielded, I would not say it was a mistake to have faith in Chloé Bourgeois specifically."

"You don't? You heard the things she said after transforming back! She sold out to Hawk Moth to get her hands on the miraculous!" she responded with expressive arm motions.

The kwami reacted little to the gesture. "Speaking also as a several-thousand-year-old being whose domain includes any and all uses of power to manipulate others, Chloé's intentions are not as malicious as her actions may paint her to be, and far from the worst that history has seen. Miss Bourgeois is a girl who has always gotten what she wants. Thanks to her money and her parents' influence, her wishes are the commands of many others, and that makes her feel entitled to the fulfillment of her desires. She simply has no concept of earning, or of deserving. Only having.

"I know of only two times in her life where she lost something that she already had: When Audrey Bourgeois left her behind to live in New York City, and when Ladybug began refusing her the Bee Miraculous. My understanding is that her mother has returned to a place in her life now."

"…of course," Marinette realized, slumping her shoulders. "Everything she did since her mother left was to try and impress her and be acknowledged, and eventually it paid off. Because of me, ironically, and not even as Ladybug. Because of that, she likely still believed that when the time was right, I would give the Bee Miraculous back. That time would have been when her parents were akumatized."

"An astute observation, great Guardian. She is experiencing now the same feeling of loss that traumatized her as a child, and she believes you are in control of that loss, thanks to Hawk Moth's machinations. He appeared in-person in her time of greatest weakness to manipulate her into accepting his akuma; it is no surprise that he would succeed, since the Butterfly Miraculous rules over communication of ideas."

Marinette didn't respond immediately, as she processed Pollen's words with a frown on her face. "I understand what you're saying, but I'm not sure I'm seeing the bigger picture here. None of this changes the fact that Chloé is not responsible enough to hold the power of a miraculous, and that her actions have caused irreparable harm to myself and all of my allies in the fight against Hawk Moth."

"I never claimed otherwise, great Guardian. My point was that even now, I do not see Miss Bourgeois as irredeemable. In fact, her story really is quite tragic, in the classical sense. She is the cause of her own demise, for her very attributes that turn people away will not themselves disappear without people nearby to help her. She may well be an exceptional user of my power, if only she could overcome this demon. That is why I am sad."

Again, the teenager was silent. As much as her parents and Tikki and Alya and _Adrien_ told her that she had such a big heart and always knew the best way to help people, how could she believe that when she was clueless on the biggest problems of all? When she had inadvertently _caused_ most of them?

"My Lady?"

Now it was Marinette's turn to have the look of hurt. Her head rose to face the kwami, but she still didn't say anything.

"I believe it is time for you to retire for the night. I shall fetch Tikki at once."

With that, she removed the miraculous and returned it to the Miracle Box. Soon, the black spot on top opened up, and her own kwami flew out of the container.

"Marinette, what's wrong?"

"I don't think I can do this, Tikki. How is a teenage girl supposed to match the wisdom of a 186-year-old sage?"

"By being the greatest teenage girl I've ever known?"

This brought pink to the face of the blue-haired one. "No… don't say that. That can't possibly be true."

"I don't think Master Fu told you this, but what you did against Kwamibuster was _unprecedented_. No miraculous wielder has _ever_ actively transformed with three miraculouses _and_ wielded every other miraculous in the box at the same time! Most Guardians wouldn't trust their chosen even to _attempt_ such a thing, but you pulled it off with panache! Marinette, when you set your mind to a task, you become unstoppable."

"But isn't that part of the problem? I put my mind to a task that I shouldn't have. Master Fu warned me about giving the Bee Miraculous to Chloé, but I didn't think anything of it. Pollen said that she could be a great wielder if she had any support to help her mature… but she doesn't, so she isn't. I should have been able to see that."

Tikki refrained from letting any frustration appear on her face. If only Marinette's stubbornness didn't extend to her habit of blaming herself for everything. Especially when she was hurting.

"You had no way of knowing she would do what she did. She was a great Queen Bee against Malediktator and on Heroes' Day. She returned the miraculous afterward. And… I think, maybe, you were biased. Hopeful that the girl who's caused you so much trouble was finally turning over a new leaf."

Marinette shifted uncomfortably. Evidently that idea hit really close to home in a way that she wasn't expecting. "I… maybe. All the more reason why I'm not ready, I guess. A worthy Guardian can't be biased."

"If that is true, then there is _no_ worthy Guardian. Every human has bias, because every human has their own perspective. Even us kwami, for all of our power, are still limited in what we see and what we think. I mean, you've met Plagg, right? Does he seem like a responsible, level-headed individual to you?"

That finally brought a smile to the girl's face. "You've got me there."

"One beauty of being both Ladybug and the Guardian is that you'll have the direct support of everyone you choose to give a miraculous to. You don't have to keep them in the dark like you did when you were protecting Master Fu. And you always have Chat Noir. I know your civilian identities must remain a secret, but he's there for you in any way he can be."

"Sure, I'll ask him for emotional support, and then he'll get all fussy about why we're not dating again."

"He's going to have to put his personal feelings aside, then. You don't have the choice to let your emotions get the better of you, and that makes it his responsibility as your partner to help you manage." Tikki actually giggled. "So I guess you'll just have to tell that boy to be a man about it!"

"We'll see," she said with exasperation. "He _is_ finally slowing down with the over-affectionate nicknames. To be honest, it's actually kind of weird. I guess I can only hope for the best."

"Never lose hope, Marinette! Now, you should probably get to bed. This went later than we expected, I think."


	3. Tiger Prawn

"C'mon, Alix, show them what you got! You're losing!"

Marinette rolled her eyes at the audaciousness of one Lê Chiến Kim. Alix had gone out on a limb and tried out for Francoise Dupont's football team last week. Despite her athletic prowess thanks to rollerblading, she didn't make the cut, so she was scrimmaging in some local recreational games for practice. Both Kim and Marinette had decided to be there to cheer her on. When Kim volunteered to watch, the bluenette figured he was doing it just to troll her, and she half-expected him to make a bet that Alix's team would lose. Instead, he was supporting her in his usual, poorly-thought out use of the French language, which may just well have been more effective in distracting the hot-headed girl than a bet, and it was certainly more of that than actually encouraging. The saddest part was, she didn't know if _he_ knew that and was doing it intentionally or not. Were all boys this clueless?

He wasn't wrong, at the very least: Alix's team was down 0-4. They were having trouble keeping the ball in their possession, forcing them to play defensively most of the time, and their communication was falling apart as everyone got exasperated, which only served to cause their loss to snowball.

 _Wait, how do I know all this?_ Marinette thought. _I don't watch sports. Has my Ladybug experience really given me such a sharp eye for competitions like this?_

An uproar of cheers and jeers interrupted her errant thought and indicated that they were now losing 0-5. At least the game was almost over, so this misery could end and she could get back to the million other things she probably should be working on rather than sitting here. She had her sketchpad with her in case any fashion ideas struck, but there was nothing inspirational about this butt-whooping that was supposed to be called a football game. _Balance,_ she reminded herself. _All work and no play makes Johnny an akumatized boy._

* * *

With her face in the dirt, Lucille Pédie had never been so relieved to hear an end-of-game whistle. Not happy, just relieved that she didn't have to play this game anymore. Midfield was the most exhausting position of them all, and she really struggled to keep up with the ball sometimes. Right now, she had failed to take the ball from the other team's shooter yet again, tripped and fell, and allowed for another goal. Final score: 0-7.

The tall blond would like to say that her teammates were supportive of her and her faults, but it couldn't be farther from the truth.

"Good job, shrimp, you lost us the game. Again."

"Maybe we should call her flounder, since that's all she does."

"In science, we learned that fish never stop moving because that's how they breath. That's the opposite of her, so we can't do that."

"Yeah, look at how pink her face is! Definitely a shrimp."

They turned their noses up to her and walked away. Only the new girl, the pink-haired one, remained, though she looked quite upset too. Lucille was surprised to see her walk over and offer a hand to help her up.

"Wow, talk about rude. Lousy teammates they are," the girl said.

"They're right, though," she replied quietly, accepting the hand and pulling herself to her feet.

"What?"

"I _am_ a shrimp. I always wimp out when the ball comes to me. I'm slow, I trip, and I can't kick 30 meters to save my life. And I'm so lanky. It's no wonder no one likes me."

The new girl looked ready to retort, but evidently didn't have words. And why would she? They had only just met. And if they had known each other longer, she wouldn't even think about it, because she would just know that it was true.

Lucille turned and left, ignoring the other girl's cry of "Wait!".

* * *

Light began pooling into a dark observatory as a lens opened its cover blocking a large window. It was a display that always pleased the one inhabitant of the room, as it heralded the time to reap what misery the chaotic elements of life had thrown in some poor fool's path.

"They say that competition brings out the worst in us, and how true it can be. So many hopes and dreams get crushed under the cleats of poor sports, even the ones who are supposed to be on the same side."

One butterfly flew into the palm of his hand, which he clasped with his other and imbued with a dark power that blackened the butterfly to a deep purple. His empowered minion knew its task, and instinctively flew out of the gap in the center of the view to the streets of Paris.

"It's time to change the rules, my akuma. Darken her heart, and let the games begin!"

* * *

Once people had dispersed, Marinette and Kim approached Alix, who was looked frustrated at the lone girl who was walking in the other direction from everyone.

"What was _that_ all about?" the boy asked bluntly.

"Kim, don't be so inconsiderate!" Marinette berated. "Something's not right here."

Alix turned to them. "That's Lucille. The other girls, they bullied her after the match. I tried to help her out, but I didn't know what to say. I'm not so good with words like you are, Marinette."

"Stay here, I'll go talk to her."

"You don't want us coming with?" Kim said, looking a bit offended.

"Well, Alix already tried, and I highly doubt you could do a better job."

"Hey! Uh… yeah."

"Don't worry, Mari's got this!" Alix assured with a smile towards her. It quickly changed to a frown towards him, though. "Besides, 'Show 'em what you've got, you're losing'? What the heck kinda cheering is that?"

Marinette couldn't help but shrug as they started bickering behind her while she left.

It wasn't hard to spot the tall girl across the field, but the amount of distance she had covered in the short time the blue-eyed girl had been talking to her friends was astounding. She was already close the buildings nearest the field and would be out of sight soon. _Oh, how nice it must be to have long legs!_ She picked up her pace to a brisk walk, which was as fast as she trusted herself to go without tripping over her two left feet and becoming the second person to faceplant in the last ten minutes.

By the time she reached the same buildings, the footballer was out of sight. Quietly, she crept into the alleyway she thought she saw her go into, and it didn't like long to hear a shaky female voice talking. But what she said told Marinette that it was too late.

* * *

A black butterfly flew down into the alleys near a football field. It found was it was looking for: A crying, uniformed girl that was covered in dirt, particularly on her face. It landed on her headband and was absorbed, turning it into a deep purple that matched its own skin.

The girl look forward, the outline of a purple butterfly forming over the blushed region around her puffy eyes.

"Tiger Prawn, I am Hawk Moth. So they all think you're a shrimp, do they? Well, how about you show them just how _dangerous_ a shrimp can be? All I need you to do for me in turn is score me Ladybug's and Chat Noir's miraculouses."

"Bring it on."

The akuma's dark substance spread down from the headband to cover her whole body.

* * *

"Tikki, this is going to sound awkward, but we should wait a little bit to transform."

"What? You want to give the akuma a head start?"

"Of course not, but Alix and Kim know that I went to see her. If I follow the girl out of sight, and Ladybug follows her akuma back immediately afterward, they're sure to put together that Ladybug and Marinette are the same person too!"

"I can see your reasoning, but the magic protecting your identity should stop them from figuring it out. Please, go stop the akuma!"

"Alright, I trust your judgment. Tikki, spots on! Hah!"

On that command, her black-spotted red super uniform appeared, starting with her mask and followed by her bodysuit that spread across her arms and down her body. Ladybug had stepped up to play.

* * *

To an outsider, it may have sounded like Adrien Agreste was just playing simple piano notes, but a more experience musical ear would detect that he was playing specific chords, one note at a time.

"So a Neapolitan sixth in G major is A-flat, C, and E," he said aloud, playing the notes in order.

"Neapolitan is a flavor of ice cream," his floating black companion moaned. "Why do you gotta learn this music theory stuff anyway? Isn't it enough to play pretty music?"

"Not for my father," he answered. Lowering his voice to a mutter, he added, "Nothing is ever good enough for him…"

His phone began to vibrate, creating an ugly sound on the piano that he had it resting on to use for notes. An emergency notification had appeared from Paris's new official akuma alert app:

AKUMA ALERT  
LOCATION: 12TH ARR., FOOTBALL FIELDS  
PRECAUTIONS: LONG-RANGE ABILITIES

The alert was accompanied by a couple of photos of a field from across the Seine. There was a pink-ish person in center, but it was too small to make out specifics. In the corner of one, he could see a red dot on top of a nearby roof.

"Looks like Ladybug reserved a seat for this game. She's going to need her team if she wants to win, though. Plagg, claws out!"

"Can't we just go for ice creeeeeeeeeeeee–!"

Plagg was sucked into his ring, powering it up so Adrien could make his mask, ears, and costume appear, his tail-like belt extending out dramatically as it always did. Chat Noir wasn't going to miss this match.

* * *

In the real happenings in front of the lens, the pink-ish akuma had caught up to the leaving football team. Up close, it was apparent why her transformation had made her pink: she now resembled an actual shrimp. Her body was covered in layers of pale pink exoskeleton that all widened as they protruded downward, like a series of long frills. On her torso, segments ended just below her chest, at her waistline like a shirt, and below her hips, resembling a skirt. There was also one acting as a regal collar that spread from her neck outward to her shoulders. Layers also subdivided the upper and lower parts of her arms and legs, along with ones at her elbows and knees that were narrower and longer like a spade. All of the rims had a darker, coral-ish color, which matched the headband that covered her skintight head covering just below her two antennae. The areas around her eyes were covered by reflective, jewel-like lenses, but the rest of her face was exposed.

Additionally, her lanky proportions had been thickened out, gaining some meat on her limbs and a body that one might describe as plump. For finishing touches, a shrimp-like tail came down from her waist, with the uropods fanning out at its end resembling a butterfly's wings. Both of her hands were now pincers, but they were different from each other: The right hand pointed forward and had a barrel hidden between the two halves, and the left had a much larger upper half that curved down and resembled a boxing glove.

She aimed the blaster-like pincer at the others, but before she could fire, the pincer was jerked upwards and back by the string of a yo-yo that had wrapped itself around the appendage. The motion turned her upper body enough to see that Ladybug was responsible.

"Don't do it. Retaliating against the bullies isn't going to fix anything. It just makes you no better than they are, because two wrongs don't make a right."

"I'm not retaliating, I'm humiliating them so completely that they'll never call anyone a shrimp again. They'll _fear_ the term shrimp when Tiger Prawn is through with them."

Tiger Prawn turned to face Ladybug directly, using the momentum to aid in jerking her ensnared pincer back to pull the heroine to her. Ladybug allowed the distance to close, while also recalling her yo-yo to be ready for what was coming next.

However, that composure quickly fell apart, as she barely dodged Tiger Prawn's other pincer when it punched it forward at a blinding speed. An audible crack was produced in the air, and Ladybug felt a shockwave roll over her from the sheer power of the attack. _It's lights out if I let that hit me._

She performed a backwards handspring to get out of range of that possibility and swung her yo-yo into its shield position when the akuma switched to the other pincer and began firing blasts at her. They were made of water, but they quickly showed themselves that the real threat was the heat. Her shield blocked the blasts just fine, but each one exploded into a cloud of steam like smoke from a bomb, and she could feel a lot of heat radiating through her defense. After only a few shots, she had to start moving because the steam was blocking her view of her opponent.

The villain moved with her, leaping backwards to keep a position that would prevent the heroine from getting an advantage and, notably, stopping her from getting between the akuma and the people she wanted to punish. Ladybug figured that this must be a technique Lucille used a lot in her football matches.

It was a great time for Chat Noir to make his introduction, stealthily leaping in from behind and very nearly grappling Tiger Prawn before she realized he was there and rolled out of the way towards the Seine.

"Thanks for the save, kitty," Ladybug said quietly as they grouped together. "Her claws are a blaster and a fist, and they're _powerful_. Don't try to block them."

"Got it," he replied, immediately leaping into action again. His staff extended slightly and he engaged the villain with it, dodging water shots while using his superior reach to keep on the offensive. His partner moved to the villain's left flank, readying her yo-yo to restrain their foe when the time was right.

That time wasn't coming as fast as they would have liked, as Tiger Prawn proved remarkably effective at dividing her attention. Although she was slowly being backed towards the Seine, not once was she even grazed by the staff or yo-yo; she kept light on her feet and applied enough pressure with the threat of her own weapons that the heroes had to stay on theirs as well. Ladybug ventured a guess that this was also due to her experience, as most akumas couldn't handle the full force of their tag-team. _Yet the others call her weak?_

Eventually, they ran out of room, and Tiger Prawn had her back to the embankment of the river. She looked over a shoulder for a moment, then did a flip backwards off the side. With the enhanced physical abilities of the akuma, she cleared the walkway and splashed down into the Seine. This retreat prompted a purple butterfly mask to appear around her eyes.

"You're not running away, are you?" Hawk Moth berated.

"No! Not this time. Those two stalled me enough for my targets to leave, and I need to find them again. This will get them off my tail."

"That's incorrect, Tiger Prawn. They can power themselves up with a water transformation, and this has also given them a chance to formulate a strategy. Don't forget that you owe me their miraculouses."

"I haven't. Wherever I go, they're sure to follow eventually. Maybe I can get them to split up to look for me."

"Hm. Your powers aren't well-suited for stealth, but fine. Not all of my akumas even bother with a strategy, so I expect great results from you." He terminated the connection.

* * *

Ladybug and Chat Noir crouched at the top of the wall of the embankment, looking for signs of the enemy they were supposed to be fighting.

"I think it might be time for a power-up, Milady."

"Me too," she agreed, before looking down at her yo-yo. "Since it involves de-transforming, might as well make sure, though…"

"Lucky Charm!" she shouted, throwing her yo-yo into the air to exude a multitude of hearts. The hearts formed together into a thin, large circle that was red with black spots, which then fell into Ladybug's hands.

"A hula hoop? This… doesn't seem like it would indicate using our transformation. Whenever it told me to go to Master Fu, it was always something that I could find where he was, like the movie ticket. This doesn't say 'go for a swim' to me; it would at least be an inner tube, right?"

"Sea animals jump through hoops at the aquarium, don't they? Would that count?"

"I don't think so, but that gives me an idea…" _Aha!_ Chat Noir… the football net… her hula hoop… Chat Noir's staff…

"Chat, I need you to Cataclysm that goalpost."

"Okay."

"Cataclysm!" he shouted, causing a black ball of energy to form in his outstretched right palm. He clenched it and pulled it close to show his control over the untamed destruction.

He touched the post and it disintegrated, leaving behind only the net. Before he could ask what she intended to do with it, she practically thrust her yo-yo into his face and grabbed his staff.

"Give me your staff. Take my yo-yo and track down Tiger Prawn. If she knows where any of those girls live, it could spell bad news for them and their families. Hurry, we have to do this before we transform back!"

Chat gave her a look, but he made the trade anyway. He whirled up the yo-yo and threw it. "Alright, inner Mister Bug, don't fail me now." With a tug, he went flying away towards the Seine in the direction he had seen the team members travel.

Thankfully, the yo-yo did appear to be listening to his desires. A number of guesses why went through his head as he swung around in search of signs of the big shrimp. _Was_ it because he had been Mister Bug? Was it more broadly because his and Ladybug's miraculouses were counterparts, or even just that the two of them were so in-sync with each other? Did her bequeathing the yo-yo to him cause it to recognize him as its new master for the time being? That happened in stories sometimes. Or maybe Tikki and Plagg got to have a say?

He'd have to ask later, because as he swung under a bridge, he saw the pink-ish figure once again. Quite literally, he had spotted the tail end of her leaving the river, a brief movement of her tail disappearing down a side street being what caught his eye.

Cutting a corner over the building, he caught another glimpse of pink on a rooftop a couple of blocks diagonally ahead. The shape proceeded to drop down, and he heard a nasty crunch. Ladybug's words about her punch came back to him, and he feared the worst. With a single leap, he cleared the distance to where she had dropped and peered over the edge of the roof to see what had happened.

Tiger Prawn had stopped a car on a side road, rather forcefully judging by the fact that its front end was completely smashed, and had her blaster pincer pointed at it. Whether it was from a punch, the car being used as a cushion, or the akuma stopping the car by making it crash into her didn't matter. Other cars had been forced to stop around them, some also crashing, which congested the road. Both of the front doors of the stopped car opened, and out crawled an older woman on the left and a younger one on the right.

Chat knew which one was the target, and he ran into a corner to position himself for the rescue. Jumping off the roof across the road, he threw Ladybug's yo-yo out to a streetlamp on the main street, and it magically redirected his momentum directly towards it when he tugged to pull himself in.

His plan had been to ram through Tiger Prawn and pull out the footballer in the same tug, but it seemed the akuma noticed the yo-yo pass overhead, for she turned to face him. Thinking quickly, he flattened himself to the road and narrowly avoided getting socked, a loud _crack_ slamming his eardrums from right above. Briefly losing his concentration from the startling noise, he nearly ran into the person he was trying to save instead of grabbing her, and he had to recall the yo-yo and use both hands to balance himself and avoid tumbling with/on top of his rescuee. The cat hero quickly set her down and placed himself between her and Tiger Prawn, spinning the yo-yo into shield form.

"Don't tell me you support these bullies, too!" she spat, glaring at Chat with her blaster pointed at him.

"I don't support any bullies, and what you're doing goes far beyond bullying! Look around! You're causing harm to the city and its people in the name of revenge!"

"What do I care? What's the city going to do to stop them? Have you _seen_ the major's daughter? He practically supports it!"

"That's…" _not true?_ he thought, rather than said, realizing he couldn't in good faith. He knew Chloé better than anyone in the city, maybe even including her own parents, and one thing he couldn't deny that she was a bully. He knew her reasons were… misguided, rather than truly malicious, but that's not what really mattered, was it? Actions speak louder than words.

"… not the point," he decided upon. "Two wrongs don't make a right; just because one person is being enabled to be a bully doesn't mean anyone else should be. That's basically what Hawk Moth is doing with you, isn't it? How is this any better?"

His words seemed to have an effect, as the telltale butterfly symbol appeared on her face that very instant. It was a little surprising, actually. Ladybug, being the kind, gentle, _amazing_ soul that she is, attempted to talk down the first few akumas into giving up their powers, but they quickly found out that akumatization almost always threw out whatever common sense the victim had. He could count the exceptions on one hand, even if this one counted.

In truth, his goal was to stall for time until Ladybug showed up, and to let the civilians flee the area. His miraculous beeped, and he saw that two paw segments were now gone.

"The difference is that Hawk Moth empowers those who are hurt, not the ones doing the hurting. That's the story of the Revolution, isn't it? The oppressed taking arms and rising up against the bourgeoisie? Or the Bourgeois, as it tends to be."

"Do you really think schoolkid bullying is comparable to the wealthy exploiting the working class? Hawk Moth's just using you. He's playing on your sensitivities to get what he wants."

"Stupid cat. It's an exchange: Hawk Moth lets me get what I want, and in return, I let him get what he wants. Your miraculouses!"

Tiger Prawn jumped on top of the car and began firing blasts at him. While the shield protected him, a cloud of hot steam soon began to cloud his view and the air around him. He jumped back and looked for ways to disrupt her while weaving between her shots.

Well, there was a pretty obvious choice here, though he figured Ladybug would disapprove of it. He threw the yo-yo to wrap around the tire of the car she was on and yanked it up, flipping it over and causing Tiger Prawn to tumble backwards off of it. While she was recovering, he had the yo-yo grab another car that was nearby, and with a yell, he swung the string overhead, the car going with it to slam down on Tiger Prawn herself.

Another crack in the air was heard, and the car crumpled in on itself as it crushed her. As he figured, the car was simply too massive compared to her fist for it to rebound the whole thing in one piece. With any luck, she was trapped, but he wasn't going to sit around and wait to find out.

Chat leapt onto the first car and over the second, whirling the yo-yo into a shield again in case of a sneak attack. He found the shrimp villain crawling out from under the wreckage, and cautiously, he moved to pull off the headband where the akuma was hiding.

"No!" she cried, hastily bringing up her blaster and firing. Not at his torso, though, but his feet, where the shield didn't reach.

"AAAAAUUUUGGHHHH!" he anguished, yanking his left leg up and holding the back of the shin where he had been hit. He fell over, the yo-yo clanking on the ground, and reeled in pain. His costume looked (and felt) partially _melted_ onto his skin from the heat. It may be invulnerable to normal sources, but this clearly wasn't a normal amount of heat, even for a miraculous.

With another bout of "encouragement" from Hawk Moth, Tiger Prawn weakly got to her feet and walked over to Chat, who attempted to scramble away but could hardly move from how much it hurt to move his leg. She kneeled and grasped his arm with her left pincer, delicately moving the other to grab the ring on his finger and–

Something smacked her in the back of the head, _hard_. If she wasn't powered, it would be an easy concussion, but even so, she had already taken one beating and the attack caused her to lose focus. Also, whatever it was had a net attached to it, which briefly dangled in front of her face before sliding back and scooping itself around her. She was hoisted into the air, not by lifting but through a fulcrum, as if she was on a see-saw. Although her body was secure, her limbs dangled through holes in the net and she got tangled trying to free them or turn to see her new attacker, though she already knew who it was.

Ladybug stood on the ground, wedging the base of Chat's staff under the car he had flipped, securing the tilt of her makeshift tool that held Tiger Prawn ensnared. The netting from the goalpost had been tied around the hula hoop and the staff to create a large butterfly net. The spotted heroine walked up to her catch and jumped to grab the headband before snapping it, causing the black butterfly to escape and for Tiger Prawn to lose her powers.

"No more evildoing for you, little akuma," Ladybug said, opening her yo-yo like a ladybug opens its wings to the glowing white compartment within and swinging it to charge up.

"Time to de-evilize!"

The yo-yo caught the akuma in one swoop, closing up to perform its magic purification.

"Gotcha!"

She opened the compartment again, and a regular white butterfly flew up and away. "Bye-bye, little butterfly!"

Next, she pulled the hula hoop down from Chat's staff, letting the de-akumatized Lucille walk free, and then threw it in the air as well.

"Miraculous Ladybug!"

It burst into a swarm of ladybugs, which spread out in groups to restore all the damage. The cars piled on the street were restored to order, the net disappeared as it returned to its place on the football field, which was also patched up from the various charred, muddy holes created from water blasts. One group encased Chat Noir's leg, healing up the burn he had sustained.

* * *

"Hmm," Hawk Moth toned, not feeling nearly as upset as he thought he would after another near-victory turned into defeat. "An interesting battle, for sure. Tiger Prawn's turmoil was nothing extraordinary, but such strong capabilities came out of it, much like Party Crasher. And yet, others like Frozer lost so much more and possessed immense power… yet they squandered it terribly. I will have to think on this more. Wings fall."

* * *

Despite the final resolution of the Miraculous Ladybug, Ladybug wasn't relaxing quite yet. "Chat, are you alright?!" she exclaimed nervously, kneeling down to inspect his leg.

"My leg is fine, but the burn to my pride doesn't heal so easily." That was a lie; he almost had the akuma downed by himself, but he didn't want Ladybug prying into the scruples of his methods.

He could see the relief on her face as she looked him in the eyes. "Silly kitty, you'll get over it. You did fine for me not being there to help."

The relief vanished, to Chat Noir's surprise. "Speaking of help… we need to talk. Can you meet at our special secret spot tonight?"

The Secret Special Spot (trademark pending) was the term they used when one of them wanted to talk about the biggest of their problems and needed absolute privacy for it. Chat knew something like this would be coming ever since Ladybug had the Guardianship of the Miracle Box suddenly forced upon her; he would never forget what she had said just before it happened: _"I'm the worst Ladybug that has ever existed!"_

It was a complete shock coming from the cool, confidant Ladybug he admired. Something must be seriously wrong, but he wasn't going to pry into a touchy subject like that without prompting. Maybe that was the Adrien side of him speaking, but since Ladybug had brought it up, that didn't matter at the moment, so…

"I'll always make time for you, Milady. The usual time?"

"Yes. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

She walked over to the confused Lucille and reached up to place a hand on her shoulder. _Stupid tallness. It would be hard to look confident if I wasn't used to this sort of thing, comforting full-sized adults as a teenaged girl._

"I can't believe I was akumatized… I really am weak, aren't I, Ladybug?" the footballer asked with sadness in her voice.

"Anything but."

"Huh?"

"Being clumsy doesn't define your strength as a person; there's so much more to consider than physical talent. What really matters is your heart and your dedication. You may not be an excellent footballer now, but if you keep trying at it, you're bound to get better. The real victory is not giving up and continuing to practice, regardless of what anyone says."

"Also, if it means anything, you made a pretty scary akuma," Chat Noir added. "Your positioning was excellent, and you were smart enough to hold your own in direct combat against the two of us. Not many akumas can do that, even the big ones that swing above our weight class."

"I…'m sorry for giving you so much trouble?"

"What Chat was _trying_ to say," Ladybug emphasized, shooting a look in her partner's direction. "is that you have other strengths at your disposal. You just need to have the courage to stand up for those strengths and figure out with your team how to make use of them. If these players refuse to listen, then you might want to find better ones, because a team that isolates its members is no team at all."

"That new girl… she did seem like she wanted to help…"

"Exactly! Just take it one step at a time. Eventually, you'll have a whole group of people who believe in you. But you have to believe in yourself first."

"Okay… thank you, Ladybug."

Her earrings beeped, and she realized she was down to her last spot. "Helping people is what I do. Now, I _really_ have to go before I transform. Bug out!" She did her signature salute and yo-yoed away.

"Can you find your way home?" Chat asked. "I have to go, too."

"I'll be fine."

He nodded. _It's too bad Marinette wasn't here to receive that advice,_ he thought as he extended his staff and vaulted towards his house.

* * *

There was a magnificent view of the setting sun from their chosen secret meeting place: The very top of the Eiffel Tower, after the last elevator for the day. This way, no one would accidentally overhear what they were talking about, and the people of Paris knew better than to try and snoop on their business with a UAV or anything of that nature.

Ladybug didn't often have time to sit and enjoy such things as sunsets, but she figured showing up a few minutes before the agreed meeting time wouldn't hurt her. It gave her time to prepare herself, mentally, even if it was just the latest step in the processing she had been undergoing for the last couple of weeks.

She was just starting to wonder where that cat was when a black blur jumped into her line of vision. He was careful not to approach her from behind, ever since that one time where he thought it would be funny to scare her. Let's just say that the owner of the Hostel Larue still believes that it was a freakishly large bird that hit their window, and he wasn't going to tell them otherwise. He gave a friendly wave, and she replied with an unhappy one.

"I realized why my Lucky Charm didn't want us to transform today, and it's not good news," she began.

"Oh?" he said, his ears perking as he sat down next to her.

"It's because we're limited on power-ups. Master Fu gave us supplies for three of each kind after Syren. We used one Aqua on Heroes' Day, and another for Miracle Queen, so we only have one left. He probably intended to make more after that, but then… well, you know. What's worse, Hawk Moth stole the translated grimoire, so I can't make any for us either. The upside is that Master Fu, or rather, Mr. Chan, probably has all of the ingredients safely at his new house, but until we know what to do with them, we need to save our last Aqua form for when it's absolutely necessary."

"Wow, that's… I hadn't thought about that. And that means we'll have to make the most of our transformations when we use any in the future, right?"

"Yep."

They spent a few moments of silence enjoying the sunset.

"So… that's definitely not why you requested the Triple S," Chat finally spoke, "What are you _really_ stressed out about?"

Ladybug took a deep breath. "I mentioned help, and what I was getting at is that I need your help with something important."

"How may I be of service, Milady?" he replied instantly. "You know you can count on me."

"Well… actually… I don't, is the thing – but not because I think you don't care or can't do what I need! Rather the opposite, actually. I'm worried that you care too much and may… overstep some boundaries."

He gave her a quizzical look. He had an idea what she was talking about, since it was a conversation they'd had several times before, but what did she need him to do?

"What I mean is, I need, um, help with… managing…" she sighed, "managing stress. And emotions."

"How so? I know what happened with Master Fu was hard on you – it was hard even for me, and I've only met him a couple of times. But against a regular akuma, you're always so collected and composed, no matter what gets thrown our way. It's one of your greatest strengths, and one of the biggest reasons why you're Ladybug and not me, isn't it? I learned that the hard way."

"But I'm not _just_ Ladybug anymore. I'm the Guardian of the Miracle Box, and that means I can't–" she looked away from him, "I can't fail. I _can't_ lose control of myself, of my emotions, for even a moment. Even in my civilian life. I have to be _perfect_ now. Anything less is all that's needed to make a fatal mistake, or for Hawk Moth to get his hands on me."

Chat put a comforting arm around her, but she didn't relax. Actually, she seemed to tense even further.

"You put too much pressure on yourself, Ladybug. I'm serious when I say I'm here for you. Whatever you need."

"That's the thing, Chat. What I'm worried about. You _are_ here for me… because you love me. Even after I've said no, you still continue to try to win me over. If I let you see my heart, what do you think you're going to do with it? Do you really believe that you _wouldn't_ try to take advantage of the opportunity?"

That question struck him, struck _Adrien_ , really hard. He immediately removed his arm and instead wrapped it around himself.

"Do you really think it's… taking advantage? Whenever we talk about this, I think back to the Oblivio incident, and that picture Alya took of us kissing."

The red-spotted heroine shook her head. "So what? I've kissed you before to remove the effect of an akuma. It didn't mean anything. Why would this?"

"Wait, you have?"

"Yeah, Dark Cupid, it was one of the earlier ones. Turned love into hate, only a kiss could remove the effect because fairy tale clichés, and you were hit. Like I said, it didn't mean anything."

Chat Noir let that sink in, remembering that that happened when he first wanted to confess his love to her. It didn't change what he was going to say next, though. "But that kiss wasn't to remove the effect of an akuma. On the contrary, since Alya took the picture, it was _after_ she had been de-akumatized. I also studied the news coverage of the fight from before we lost our memories. We were both blasted by Oblivio after using our powers. That means we had to have learned each other's secret identities, and whatever we saw, we must've _both_ discovered that we had feelings for each other if it led to a kiss like that. I know we don't remember it, and that we can't know who we really are, but I trust that even without our memories, _we_ didn't make that decision on a whim."

This only caused Ladybug to withdraw further, bringing her knees up as she curled into a ball. Her voice became shaky. "Chat… you don't understand… When I said… that I can't love you, it wasn't because of that other boy I like. I didn't want to tell you this, but I don't think you will truly accept the reality of our situation unless I do."

"Milady…?"

"Bunnyx visited me, sometime after Timetagger. She took me to a future where all of Paris had been destroyed. Destroyed by you."

His green eyes widened. "Me?"

"Something happened, it led to you finding out my secret identity, and then it broke your heart. Hawk Moth akumatized you. Both he and I… died."

"You… no… but how…?"

"She refused to let me see any of what actually happened. All I know is from what Chat _Blanc_ said to me." Ladybug paused for a moment as the words rang out in both of their heads.

"I'm sorry… As long as Hawk Moth is still out there, we can't be together. Not romantically. But we're still partners, and I still need you. I need your help to be strong, and not fail. Can you do that for me?"

"Chat Blanc…" he half-mumbled. "I… I really don't know. I want to, but… you might be right. Can I trust myself not to take advantage of you?"

The girl looked at him. "Do you want some time to think about it?"

"No," he answered, surprisingly quickly, while clenching his fist. "I'll never say no to helping you Ladybug, especially not when you need me. The only question is whether I'm good enough. I just don't want to promise anything that I might not be able to deliver."

Ladybug smiled and placed her hand on his arm. "That's fine. It may take some time, but I'm sure we'll figure out a way."

"Ladybug and Chat Noir are like, destined to work together, right? I bet we will."

She laughed, just a little, and it warmed his heart. Since the sun had set and the air was cooling it back down, he took the initiative in standing, extending a hand to the one he loved.

"I believe it's time for us to depart, Milady."

"You're going to keep on calling me those mushy nicknames just to annoy me, aren't you?" she commented, accepting the hand and rising.

"Me? I would _never_ do that, Bugaboo," he taunted, gesturing dramatically. He started walking backwards away from her as a grin formed on his face. "Junebuggy. Button Spots. Seven-Spotted Wond–ahh!"

With its distinct sound, Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around the hero, pinning his arms. She didn't pull him in or do anything other than stand there and smirk at him.

"Oh my, it appears my yo-yo has jumped at you of its own accord. It must be possessed by an akuma!"

"Careful, some kitties like to play with yarn," he remarked, using his free forearms to grab the string and pull her towards him.

It would have been easy to resist, but she allowed herself to be pulled along, at least until she was in arms' reach. The blue-haired one recalled her device, using her free hand to poke his blond-haired forehead and keep him at that distance. After a moment, they both fell into laughter for a solid ten seconds.

Once they had composed themselves, Ladybug closed the remaining steps and embraced Chat Noir in an honest hug.

"Thank you, Chat. I'm sorry it has to be like this, but you really do mean a lot to me."

"You too, Ladybug. I couldn't do this job without you."

She motioned to release, and he obliged without attempting to linger. He didn't quite like the smirk on her face. "Of course you can't, kitty, because I'm the only one who can purify the akumas," she stated with two quick pats, before retreating to the ledge and revving up her yo-yo. "Bug out!"

And she was gone. Chat stood there, enveloped in warmth despite the falling temperature. _I love her so much. She needs me to be strong, and I won't let her down!_


	4. Meet the Miraculouses: Roaar

In her effort to familiarize herself with the miraculouses, Marinette was going to spend time with one kwami each night. It would be good for them to get out of the Miracle Box and see the modern world, and they could tell her about their powers. Tonight, she decided she would wear the Tiger Miraculous. As she adorned the panjas, a sparkling maroon light appeared and transformed into the panther-like kwami Roaar.

"Ahhhhh, Marinette! We have much to talk about."

"We… do?"

"Yes ma'am, Tikki told me about your little predicament."

"Uh… predicament?" _Please tell me this isn't about Adrien and Luka…_

"This whole 'comparing yourself to everyone and finding all the things someone does better' predicament. Doesn't fly with me, you see. As the kwami of the self, it is my duty to see everyone under their own lens, and to measure them against themselves and _only_ themselves. It is literally who I am."

The teen shrunk into herself a little bit. "You're clearly not shy about your feelings."

"Nope, and neither should you be! Consider this a pep talk. Being a miraculous holder is a great honor. It's a lot of hard work, yeah, and you won't always get what you want, but that's just a part of life. What matters is what you do with what you're given. Those with the greatest conviction to achieve their goals are the ones chosen to wield the jewels containing the power of the universe, to allow them to achieve those goals.

"That's you, Marinette. Tikki's been singing your praises to the rest of us kwami, you know. Your goals are noble, and your heart is pure. You shouldn't let any amount of mistakes or obstacles dissuade you from your vision."

"I'll tell you something similar to what I told Tikki, then: It's not just having the strength to pursue the vision, it's having the endurance to make it to the end. My miraculous gives me the strength, but nothing gives me the endurance, yet. I just spoke to Chat Noir about it tonight, to get his support."

"I'm glad to hear that. The most common misconception about self-confidence and self-reliance is believing that they mean someone must be confident in and rely on _only_ their self. Knowing oneself also means knowing one's limits, where their self ends. Tikki said you're having some problems with that, too."

Marinette shrugged. "If I'm the one best suited, or the _only_ one suited, to do so many things, then I have to do them, don't I? I don't know what else there is to say about it."

"I think you're underselling the ability of your friends to support you in doing those things. Let's make a metaphor to a tiger out in the wild. Tiger's gotta eat, right? Right now, you're the tiger that only eats when you're so famished that if you don't eat something, you'll die. You fill up, and then proceed to ignore any potential meals, no matter how convenient, until you absolutely need them again. That's not how a real tiger works, of course. They're constantly searching for convenient meals to keep their bellies full, so that they never get to a point of desperation where they have no choice."

"Tigers also don't have to worry about a bigger threat catching them eating and attacking them, or their loved ones, while they're vulnerable, or using the information to remove all of their meal choices from places they can reach."

"No, but many Ladybugs of times past have. Tikki would know more about that than me, obviously. I sure wish there were more Tiger wielders to say the same about myself…"

The girl shook her head. "That's a conversation to have later. I called upon you to hear about _your_ powers and experiences tonight. It's a step to solve that problem of yours, is it not?"

"Hmph, I suppose. Don't think you'll be able to escape my paws for long, though." Roar paused for a moment to shift gears. "So, as we've established, I am the kwami of _ego_ , the self, and all there is to do about it. Self-awareness, self-determination, self-expression… defining sentience and intelligent life is very convoluted, and that's even just within the confines of species on this planet. In a way, I _am_ the definition, but on an abstract level – I could not describe it for you in words even if I wanted to, which I don't. Wielding my miraculous can guide this journey, but ultimately it is up to humanity to figure out the answers for itself. To activate my power, you must say, 'Roaar, stripes on.' Yes, I know it's just like Tikki's, and no, I don't like it. I'll never be happy that the mage made the activation phrase of the kwami focused on the _individual_ a _derivative_ of another kwami. Likewise, the de-transformation phrase is, 'stripes off.'

"While transformed, your miraculous tool is a whip. Just like your yo-yo, it's indestructible and can be willed to perform many utilities a normal whip wouldn't be able to accomplish through physics. I guess that means it's a knock-off too, huh? Grrrrreat. Although, I hear there's a famous movie series inspired by Nagual."

"Nagual?"

"The last superhero to wear the panjas, during the Peruvian War of Independence. You should probably know that the decolonization of that whole continent was one of the last and also one of the greatest conflicts the kwami have been involved in; most of the miraculouses came out of the Box for it, which almost never happens. Anyway, apparently the movies involve an archaeologist finding a magic whip in Peru and using it to hunt down other powerful artifacts before his enemies can. Plagg was jealous that they made it about me and not him."

"Why does that not surprise me… I think I know what movies you're talking about, but I haven't seen them. Anyway, uh, we were talking about your powers?"

"Right. Your superpower while transformed is called Showstopper. Say it, and all eyes will be on you. I mean that literally, it forces everyone to focus their attention on what you're doing, excluding your allies. Basically, if you want a distraction, I'm your gal."

"I see. Chat Noir might like that for a Unite." The heroine thought for a moment. "But if I were to give it to someone, I would want the kind of person who has a big heart and great skill at something influential, but who lacks the confidence to strive to make a difference. The Tiger Miraculous would empower them to let their true self shine and transform into a leader."

"Exactly. Oh, I'm getting excited just thinking about it!"

Marinette sighed.

"I'm still not even sure that I _want_ to hand out the miraculouses yet…"

"Mmm. Well, it's not like you have to decide tonight. I'm sure you'll make the right choice when the time comes."

"I hope so. Tell the others I'll be seeing them too, okay? Right now, I should go to sleep."

"Will do."

With that, she removed the miraculous and returned it to the Miracle Box, before storing it away in its secret hiding place at the bottom of her chest.


	5. Landover

A pink bike burst down Boulevard South, narrowly avoiding the other cars on the road that it was keeping pace with. Although, if you asked any Parisians, they would say it wasn't a particularly big accomplishment given how terrible Paris traffic is. The bike made a sharp left onto Place Cardinal Lavigerie and continued past the end of the road to its destination: La Pelouse de Reuilly, a massive concrete corridor at the western edge of the Bois de Vincennes. It made a hasty stop at a bicycle rack, the rider almost tripping as she dismounted and removed her matching pink helmet, rustling out the ruffles from her blue-tinted hair.

Without stopping, she hurried down the road towards a group of almost a dozen people gathered at the crossroads in the center of the space. Only when she had reached them did Marinette allow herself to gasp for air.

"Wow, _someone_ was in a hurry," Alya quipped, watching Marinette stand there, doubled over, not having said hi to any of the friend group yet. They had all come to expect this sort of behavior from their oftentimes-scatterbrained friend, but Alya was the best friend that got to call her out on it.

"Yeah… I didn't… want to… be late… for once."

She looked up to see who all was present. Alya happened to be the closest, with Nino standing next to her and holding her hand. Max was behind him, giving what appeared to be a lengthy speech to Kim (who looked bored), Rose (who looked fascinated), and Juleka (who looked somewhat nervous behind Rose, but seemed engaged by her friend's enthusiasm, if nothing else). Ivan was holding onto Mylène from behind, both looking with interest at a drawing Nathaniel was showing them. She was surprised to see Marc present, standing shyly at Nathaniel's side, but he gave her a small wave when he noticed she was looking at him.

That meant that Alix wasn't present yet, so she wasn't the last one there! Finally catching her breath, she beamed as she stood up. Then Alya and Nino both raised an eyebrow at her and suddenly she didn't feel so excited.

"I know what you're thinking, girl. Alix texted the group and said she'd be running late, which I'm guessing you didn't see." The brunette raised her phone for emphasis.

"Yeah, sorry, dude," Nino added. "It was something about a new friend from her football practice?"

Marinette smiled. "Yeah, Lucille! She got akumatized the other day because the other girls on her team were bullying her. It's good to see that she and Alix are getting along!"

"Speaking of people you're getting along with…" Alya started with a mischievous grin. "I'm surprised you didn't ask you-know-who to join us since you-know-who-else has a photo shoot today."

The bluenette blushed, scratching the back of her head. "Ah, yeah, Luka, well, I just didn't, uh, want to make things awkward, y'know, because Juleka's here and everyone else is our age too, and, uh…"

"Alya's only teasing," Nino said, putting a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder with a firmness that told her to tone it down. "I get it, this is still new to you, and not every couple is as smooth as Alya and I. Kim didn't bring Ondine along, either."

"She's right, though. I really should spend more time with Luka. I'll have to make sure to arrange a date with him in the near future. A real one."

"Good on you, Marinette," Alya approved. _Even if I still support you going out with Adrien 1000%. All in due time, I suppose._

"Oh, there's Alix! I see her!" Myléne suddenly shouted, getting everyone's attention. Approaching from the west, perpendicular to where Marinette had come from, was a girl blazing through on roller skates, keeping clear of other parkgoers with ease. As she neared them, she slowed down and gave an enthusiastic wave that the non-shy members among them returned.

"Finally, the gang's all here," Kim said. "So, uh, how do we want to spend our day in the park? I know I want to visit the stadium where the 1900 Olympics were."

"That's, like, right here," Juleka miffed.

"There's also INSEP way on the other side," Alix countered, coming to a stop in the space next to Marinette that was still open. "That's the National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance, for those who weren't aware. You know Kim and I are considering trying out for the elite teams when we get to lycée, right?"

"I did not, actually," Alya replied, a little surprised. "That explains the sudden football interest."

"Well, yeah, rollerblading isn't really a professional sport, though it totally _should_ be. I don't know how far I'll go with it, but it's an option my old man approves of."

"I see. I was going to drag Nino to the Vincennes Zoo. _My_ old man works at the Ménagerie du Jardin des plantes, and I want to compare the two to prove that his is better."

"Oh, I didn't know that," Kim commented.

Max pushed his glasses up. "You should. If memory serves, he was the zookeeper whose panther you taunted in front of him, angering him to the point where he was akumatized and chased after you."

"Oh, yeah, _that_ guy. That was your dad?"

The reporter leered at him, albeit not seriously. "Uh, yeah." She pointed her finger at him teasingly. "Why am I not surprised _you're_ the one behind that?"

A particular thought came into Marinette's head, one that gave her a sly grin even worse than Alya's was. "As fun as this argument is, _I_ know that the real reason Alya's taking Nino to the zoo is because they first became a couple at one. They're going to _reminisce_ , if you know what I'm getting at."

Alya's jaw dropped, her finger left suspended in mid-air. Alix whistled, long and low, while Nino's face turned as red as his cap.

"Marinette, you dirty, dirty girl!" the accused teen gasped. "I cannot believe that pure, innocent, Marinette Dupain-Cheng just said those words."

Marinette was trying _really hard_ not to lose her composure and burst into laughter. But she was on a roll, and she should know, since her parents owned a bakery. "Aw, come on. Your one-year anniversary is pretty soon. You're just getting a little, heh, head start. Maybe without the start."

Alya's face was transitioning to the same red as Nino's, but whether it was embarrassment or indignation was up to interpretation. It was probably both. "Oh. My. Gosh. Is this real life? There's no way this is real life. This must be an akuma. That's it, an akuma that takes the minds of teenage girls and tosses them in the gutter."

Without warning, she pounced onto Marinette, putting her in a headlock with one arm while poking her in many locations with the other, causing her victim to start laughing from what was evidently being quite ticklish.

"Now where's that akuma hiding, Dupain-Cheng! Nino, come help me!"

"I, uh, um…"

He didn't get the chance to put his brain back together, because Marinette, with surprising strength, escaped from the headlock and completely turned the tables by getting behind Alya and forcing her to the ground with her hands behind her back.

"Looks like Hawk Moth wins this time, Rena–aaaaaissance Fair. Yeah, because the, uh, Renaissance Fair is held here. And now it's ruined, because of the, uh, akuma."

No one else seemed to have been listening to her near-slip up of Rena Rouge's identity. Throughout the whole exchange, they all just stared. And kept staring, even as the fragments of sentences started falling from their mouths.

"Did Marinette really just…"

"Did Alya just…"

"How did Marinette do…"

"Can you get off of me, please?!" Alya grunted, snapping everyone out of their dazes.

Marinette stood up quickly, her face joining the round of reddened complexures, while her BFF pulled herself up from the ground.

"Wow. Today we learned what happens when Marinette decides to make trouble," Alix stated.

"I think I'm kinda scared now," Myléne said jokingly.

"Yeah, remind me never to get on her bad side," Kim added.

"Look, uh, just," the bluenette stumbled, "forget this ever happened. _Please_ don't tell my parents. Or Adrien. Or anyone. Ever."

"I'm still not sure I believe it myself," Nathaniel said rather quietly.

"Where did you even _learn_ that kind of language?" Alya questioned, folding her arms before instantly losing her serious face. "Wait. It was me, wasn't it? Who else could it be but me. I did this to myself."

That finally broke the tension, and she and Marinette just fell over in laughter. Everyone else was laughing too, but none so hard as the two girls who could hardly stand and were crying. Nino had to physically support his girlfriend, a big smile on his face despite himself.

Off to the side, a young man on a bench huffed, closing the book he was reading and standing to leave. _Of course the collégiens would make vulgar humor and treat akumas like a joke,_ he thought. _I doubt any of them even know any akuma victims._

* * *

No late-summer sun pierced the dull cloud cover to reflect off of Lac Daumesnil as the group, sans Alix and Kim, now walked their bikes along Promenade Maurice Boitel and continued chatting about their plans.

"The Ferme Georges-Ville? That sounds so quaint! Are you going to pet the animals?" Rose asked cheerily.

"Actually, I wanted to learn about sustainability," Myléne answered. "The farm holds educational workshops, but they're only on the weekends, so I think it would be hard for our teachers to organize a class trip. Since we're here, I want to see what it's all about."

"Petting the animals isn't out of the question, though," Ivan assured. "You're welcome to join, if you want."

"Thanks, but I'm good," Nathaniel replied. "I wanted to work on my landscapes, and yes, it's partially for the Ladybug comic. I'm pretty good with human shapes, but my backgrounds could use some improvement. Although, now that I think about it, pretty much all of the akumas happen in the city proper, don't they? They're never out in nature like this."

"The park's beautiful to see anyway…" Marc added softly.

"Yeah, the four of us," Rose said, gesturing to Juleka as the fourth, "just wanted to walk around the park and look at all the pretty scenery!"

"Oh. That's fine." Mylène said. "What about you, Marinette? And Max too, of course."

"I didn't have any particular plans… I was kinda hoping we wouldn't splinter off into our usual couples, to be honest."

"Oh. Well, sorry… we made a reservation in advance."

"Yeah, us too," Alya said. "The zoo isn't free."

"In that case, perhaps you could offer me assistance with something?" Max asked.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Am I right in claiming that you possess experience in scheming?" he continued, prompting a strange look from her.

"Uh… I guess? I don't know if that's the nicest way of putting it."

"It's certainly accurate, though," Alya quipped, tapping her chin. "Does Operation Secret Garden ring any scheming bells?"

There was a round of nods from all the girls present, and one of confusion from the boys.

"I'm guessing that's the name of some plan to win over Adrien, right?" Nino figured.

"Right on the money, honey."

"Now I want to hear how that went down. Can't be any worse than our supposed date at the zoo, am I right?"

"No, you don't, because yes, it can," Marinette asserted, pouting as her face flushed red. "No one needs to know about that, okay? Or the zoo, since we're on the subject."

"Relax, Marinette," Mylène assured. "We're not judging you based on embarrassing things that happen in your life."

"Your floundering around model boy isn't exactly news to us," Juleka added, causing the redness to deepen.

"Hey, I'm working on that, and… Max what did you need help with!"

"It will be easier to show you."

* * *

After making a full lap around the stadium, Alix and Kim had determined that it was closed to the public, as it was fully surrounded by a fence with locked gates. There was a dressy-looking guy trying to read his book that didn't seem happy that they were snooping around, but he wasn't a park ranger or anyone important, so they tried to ignore him.

Of course, the solution there was simply to jump the fence. They wouldn't mind for an hour or so, right? No one was practicing right now. On the inside, Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil was a typical outdoor playing field. There was a full-sized football field almost literally encapsulated by the concrete of the cylindrical cycling track that gave the facility its name. On one side was a set of covered bleachers for spectating, connected to a modest brick building that contained a restaurant by the name of La Cipale. It was reservations-only and not cheap, so they did not plan on eating there.

Although it wasn't grand, Alix was here to appreciate the history behind it. Understanding heritage was something that her father Alim had instilled in her, even if she had little interest in his museology and archaeology and other -ologies that Jalil had taken after in spades. Idly, she thumbed the pocket watch she kept on her person at all times – the one that was secretly the Miraculous of the Rabbit.

Her future career as Bunnyx had been on her mind a lot recently, as she had realized a very important fact: Once she became the superheroine that watches over time, there was no going back. The others, they might be able to eventually, but the idea of having a future was completely meaningless when she could see the future and go there, and to any other time in all of history if she needed to, with the goal of preserving the right future that she would already know about. Well, it was probably meaningless. Maybe if everything was over, and then she went to the end of the time she had observed and renounced her Miraculous, she would be able to live a normal life, but when would that be? How old would she be – does she even age when transformed and travelling through time? Time travel was complicated. There were so many questions and so few answers.

"Hey, Alix, you up for a game?" Kim asked. He had dropped his bag and taken a football out of it.

She raised a pink eyebrow at him. "I didn't know you played football, Kim."

"I don't! But I figured it'd be good to spread my wings a bit. Track and swimming are both excellent cardio, but football takes skill and coordination with others."

"That's not how that saying works."

He merely shrugged. "You get the point, right? Isn't that why you're trying it, too?"

 _Well, actually…_ The real reason was that Future Alix had said she'd get her miraculous once she was cool enough. It was her mission now to be as cool and _responsible_ as she could be, and her trying out for the football team was her first serious attempt at it. It was a team sport, and earning her spot, _especially_ if she went for it in lycée, meant putting in a lot of hard work towards getting better at it. And it would branch out her friend pool, which was off to a great start with Lucille.

Wait… was she going to have friends once she became Bunnyx? Well, other than her superhero team, of course. She knew Ladybug and Chat Noir maintained civilian lives, and presumably they weren't all alone there. Although, it was hard to imagine how they'd pull off the crazy antics they'd need to hide that double life from the people they knew.

Like how she needed to come up with a lie right now to cover that up from Kim.

"Well, sort of. Like I said, rollerblading isn't going to pay the bills, and I don't really know what I want to do in the future. I don't want to get stuck at some sucky minimum-wage job because I didn't see what could've been waiting for me, y'know?"

"I guess that makes sense. So, a game or not?"

A mischievous smile appeared on her face. "It'll have to be quick, before the cops find out we're here!"

Kim put on his best bravado as they walked out to center field. While he meant the things he said, he would be lying if he said his true interest in the sport wasn't for the head-to-head competition. It was built for teams and was quite easy to play pickup matches, unlike track and swimming, which both ultimately had the goal of improving one's own times despite being performed in races.

Why did that matter? The answer is King Monkey. Despite spending a whole three minutes as the superhero, it unlocked a thirst within him that couldn't be silenced. Working with others to take down a bad guy… he had wished for it ever since the heroes had first called upon Rena Rouge to help them, but the fantasies couldn't compare to the real deal when it finally happened. However, he had heard absolutely nothing from the old man who loaned him the Monkey Miraculous or Ladybug since then, so he was looking for something else to try and fill that desire.

"Since we don't have teams with us, wanna do shoot-outs?" he suggested.

"You're on, Kim! …Man, that's not fun to say when I already use your last name."

"Let me do it, then! You're on, Kubdel!"

* * *

Rose, Juleka, Nathaniel, and Marc kept their visit to Reuilly and Bercy Islands on the lake short, because a certain someone among them was really excited to see the Parc floral, for some reason. They had a nice bike ride through the forested heart of the park, the only problem being some guy walking down the middle of the road with his nose too deep in a book to see them coming. When they passed through the entry gate from Route de la Pyramide, Rose ran to the left straight to the Valley of Flowers… where there wasn't a blossomed flower in sight.

When Juleka caught up, she could see the disappointment on her girlfriend's face as she turned around all poutily. In return, her one visible brown eye gave an incredulous look.

"You really didn't realize that most of the park isn't in bloom at this time of year?"

"I heard that part of it had flowers year-round… I was hoping it'd be here."

"No, it looks to be a fair bit east of here," Nathaniel's smooth voice carried from behind them, as he looked at a fold-out map that Marc was holding.

The dark-haired one looked a bit miffed. Apparently, she was the only one among the four to have actually looked up their destinations online before they got there. She even planned a whole route through the Vincennes for them so they could get everywhere they needed, with minimal crowds…

"It looks like it's called the Garden of Four Seasons," Marc added. "Pretty fitting, I guess."

"Y'know, I was hoping to save those for last…" Juleka informed, her voice attempting to leave her. She cleared her throat before continuing, "Figured we'd build up the anticipation with the other stuff first."

"Hmmm!" Rose hummed with content. "Not a bad idea at all!"

They continued on, admiring the small lake named _Miroir d'eau_ , the water mirror, and the performance stage on the other side.

"You know what's also not a bad idea?" the bubbly girl continued. "We could get Kitty Section to play at the stage here! Imagine a beautiful outdoor concert!"

"You'd want to wait until the spring to have all the flowers in bloom, wouldn't you?" Nathaniel suggested.

Juleka nodded. "Concerts are usually planned way in advance… we wouldn't be waiting long before audition. Would be worth asking the others."

Beyond the Valley and across the perpendicular path was a set of brick-roofed pavilions and covered walkways arranged in a diagonal grid: The Butterfly Garden. The thought of butterflies caused a small spike in Juleka's anxiety. After all, she was pretty sure that her three akumatizations (four if you counted Heroes' Day where _everyone_ was akumatized), near-fourth one, and a sentimonster added for good measure were the high score among anyone in Paris. She really didn't like the feeling of weakness it gave her, because most of them were caused by her own doubts about herself or her friends.

That anxiety topped the long list of things Juleka didn't understand about herself. The scariest movies, creepiest alleys, and deadliest akumas couldn't scare her, yet receiving almost any attention from all but a select few people caused her brain to shut down and get worked up all at once. It was the tragic irony of wanting to be included yet feeling too inadequate to include herself.

At least Rose would never give up on her. Even in her darkest days, she could always count on Rose's optimism and support to try and cheer her up. It didn't always _succeed_ , however… Rose always followed her heart, but when you're plagued by dark thoughts, no amount of positive emotion could block out what they were saying to you. Marinette was better at that sort of stuff, but she was busy most of the time. Juleka was somewhat glad that her blued-haired friend was giving a shot at dating her brother over pursuing Adrien, because she definitely needed the stress relief and he was good at that. Apparently even Luka wasn't getting to spend much time with her, though, which was somewhat concerning. _If only I knew the first thing about giving support rather than receiving it._

"Penny for your thoughts, Juleka?" Nathaniel asked. She blushed a little, embarrassed at having drifted away from reality like that as they walked through the garden.

"Um, it's nothing…" she mumbled. "The butterfly garden reminded me of akumas."

"You too, huh?" Marc said quietly from the side. "Darn Hawk Moth…"

"Let's not worry about that, okay?" Rose assured. "I don't see any of the pretty butterflies here anyway…"

"Sorry," Marc responded. "Can't help but think about what could be, or could've been, sometimes. It's sort of what I do as a writer…"

"And I as an artist. But you're right, reminiscing on the lower points of our lives isn't productive. If this isn't pleasant for us, we should really get moving to the other parts of the park."

"No… I'm fine," Juleka stated. "The butterflies might just be inside, really…"

The quartet crossed the street to the building housing the pavilion and went inside.

* * *

"You want to do _what_ now?!" Marinette almost shouted in disbelief.

Fortunately, only a brown-haired man with a trench coat and a book was nearby to hear her; judging by the way he looked around and then fussed off, he didn't spot where Max and she were hiding in the bushes. The boy's scheme had brought her to the large fence of Fort Neuf de Vincennes. The fort was an active military establishment, and yet…

"I'm positive that I did not stutter. I want to steal away into the fort."

"But _why_? Do you want to get _shot_?" The blue-eyed girl was struggling to keep her voice down without it coming off as a sneer.

"I merely want to prove that it's possible. I even formulated a plan before our arrival today, which is what I requested your assistance with. It is only 20.1% likely that the plan is foolproof, and you seem experienced at infiltration. With your input, we could raise that up to 75 or even 80% assurance."

Marinette facepalmed. Max, evidently, was oblivious, as he opened his bag and Markov flew out. The sentient robot projected a small screen showing the floor plans of the fort, guard schedules, and other useful information in the air front of them that Marinette didn't want to look at. She _really_ didn't want to know how the tech whiz obtained this likely-confidential information.

Tuning out the duo's exposition on their plan was harder, and eventually she gave in to the temptation to sneak a peek. It was… impressive.

"And then, after the watch is chasing down this trusty UAV of mine, Markov will sneak in from behind and–"

"Wait. What if the watch people don't take the bait?"

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Well, what if they have some sort of defense to disable it? Or have a separate group that investigates problems than the one in the watchtower? And what am I saying, _we're not breaking into the fort._ "

"Fine. Let's treat it as a thought experiment, then. _Hypothetically_ , if the UAV wasn't able to distract the watch, then…"

* * *

Ivan and Mylène walked hand-in-hand alongside their small tour group, as the guide wearing regular farming clothes provided information about the Farm and its activities. The guide stopped, as he had several times to show an area of the farm that he was talking about in that announcer-ish voice of his. This time, it was a pasture with a variety of bovines.

"Here we have our cows and bulls. During the summer, the cows produce milk for their calves that they birthed after 'fun times' in the spring. We have to collect the milk every day to prevent their udders from getting too bloated, as the calves do not drink all of what they produce. If you're interested, we have activities to milk the cows each morning and…"

Ivan was interested, but he could tell from the way that Mylène was resting against him that she was rather bored, so he wasn't going to say anything. He knew that she was more invested in the bigger picture, the sustainability stuff, but personally, he found himself really enjoying learning about where their food came from. It's pretty easy to take for granted the amount of work that goes into producing something that everyone needs to survive when all you see is the result that you buy.

Or maybe it was just because they were working with their hands a lot. He'd never been good at expressing himself, and he found that building and doing things were better outlets for his feelings than attempting to use words. Mylène once told him that the best part of any gift he gave her was how perfectly he had thought each one out to address whatever she was struggling with. She said that everyone could see how kind he was if he could help them in the same way, but, well… he didn't know the others very well. Even being in Kitty Section, he still wasn't comfortable opening those doors with the other band members. Marinette, maybe, but he knew she had a lot going on in her personal life that she wanted to keep private, so he wasn't sure what to do to help.

Part of the reason why he had fallen for Mylène was how she was the exact opposite of him in this regard. She was a natural with people and had big dreams of being a politician and advocate for good. It was that tenacity that tripped her up sometimes, when she failed to break down a goal into its parts and bit off more than she could chew. Those were the times when he would be her rock and catch her. Yes, he understood the irony of that when his akuma was a giant rock monster.

"Alright, from here we'll head on to the crop fields," the tour guide announced. "I'll tell you all about our innovative crop rotation!"

Ivan felt a noticeable shift from his girlfriend. _Guess we're getting to the good part now,_ he wondered. Not that it was _his_ forte, but as long as she was happy, everything would be just fine.

* * *

Begrudgingly, Alya had to admit that the Vincennes Zoo had some merit to it. While it wasn't as large as the Jardin des plantes as a whole and lacked the special exhibits and greenhouses for plants (as you might expect, since only one was named after them), the animal variety was cooler than in the ménagerie. Mylène would have been excited to see all of the endangered species that it kept, as conservation was one of the focal points of the zoo since its renovation. Maybe Marinette had a point about them keeping to their usual pairs too much when everyone got together, and it certainly didn't help that most of those pairs were dating.

Just the thoughts of "Marinette" and "dating" in proximity caused her to blush at her best friend's comments from earlier. The worst part is that Marinette was spot-on; if she hadn't made the very idea of it super awkward, Alya totally would have made a move on Nino when they reached the panthers.

Instead, their conversation drifted towards more family-friendly topics like deaths due to zoo animals. They had almost completed their circuit around the zoo, with the turtle and flying fox habitat being the very last stop. This was intentional, given that the animals in this habitat were special to them.

"What a coincidence that our Miraculous animals share a place at the zoo, right?" Alya noted.

"Yeah. Maybe it's a sign that we'll move in together, honeybear." He nudged her playfully, causing her to blush. She looked down, the turtle swimming in the pond suddenly grabbing all of her attention.

"Do you think Ladybug will ever let us use the miraculouses again?" she asked after a moment.

A couple of days after Chloé's parents were akumatized into Heart Hunter, Ladybug had told them that there was actually a _second_ akuma immediately afterward, which was Chloé herself. Her power had exposed everyone on the team except the original duo to Hawk Moth, so Ladybug said that she had no choice but to revoke their privileges to the Fox and Turtle Miraculouses to keep them safe.

"I dunno. Given what happened, I can't think of any reason why Ladybug would change her mind – she's been strict about this identity stuff since the beginning. But who knows what the future has in store? Que será será. We gotta live with what happens no matter how it happens."

"True, it's surprising that she was even okay with us knowing each other's identities… but still, having Trixx was good for me. Actually _being_ a superhero is so much different than running after one, and that's helped me understand that pursuing the truth isn't always everything and keeping secrets can be important. Especially since I was paired with the kwami of _illusion_ , of all things."

"I feel ya there. Granted, I got the protection power because I wanted to protect, but turns out there's more to it than that, y'know? Turtles aren't just immobile shells, they have flexible limbs too. Knowing what needs to be held onto and what can be let go… it's deep stuff, babe. And I think we can be flexible even without our powers."

Alya smiled at him and pulled her boyfriend into a one-armed hug. "You know what, you're right. Miraculous or no, we should help out however we can. I knew I didn't keep you around for nothing, turtle boy."

"Other than your zany schemes, you mean?"

"Ahhh... You wouldn't have a choice in those even if we weren't dating."

* * *

Light began pooling into a dark observatory as a lens opened its cover blocking a large window. It was a display that always pleased the one inhabitant of the room, as it heralded the time to reap what misery the chaotic elements of life had thrown in some poor fool's path.

"I can sense it… a pleasant day in the park, ruined by other people who don't know the meaning of peace."

One butterfly flew into the palm of his hand, which he clasped with his other and imbued with a dark power that blackened the butterfly to a deep purple. His empowered minion knew its task, and instinctively flew out of the gap in the center of the view to the streets of Paris, heading towards the forest on the city outskirts.

"Enjoy the park, my lovely akuma. It will be so much grander once you evilize that young man!"  
  


Meanwhile, the brown-haired boy with the book walked angrily down Allée Royale. "Stupid kids, getting in the way all day… almost hit by a football, run over by a bike… just wanted to read my book…"

Hector didn't notice the strangely-colored butterfly that flew up to him until it landed on, and promptly absorbed itself into, his fantasy novel, turning it a deep purple. The outline of a purple butterfly formed at the edges of his vision, and then the silver-masked man became visible to him.

"Landover, I am Hawk Moth. I, too, hate it when miscreants soil such a calm day as today. I can grant you the power to close off this entire park and shape it into a fantasy world for your enjoyment only. Those other miscreants Ladybug and Chat Noir will also want to ruin your nice day… In exchange for your powers, I require that you take their miraculouses for me to collect once you defeat them."

"I shall reshape the future for us both, Hawk Moth." His book started growing larger, spreading its dark matter across his entire body, and the whole world began to shake.

* * *

"And once I capture the gateman in the tablecloth, Markov will disable the lock on the gate and we rush through to the barracks?" Marinette asked, pointing at the relevant spots on the digital map that she had heavily annotated.

"Negative, Marinette! Markov disables the gate _first_ , because then the gateman will investigate the matter and leave himself open for your capture."

"Ohhh, right." She looked over everything once more. "Okay, I think I got it all down now. You ready?"

"Of course I am! Markov?"

"I estimate a 92.05% chance of success, with a margin of error of 4.23%. Ready to engage."

"Alright, Operation: Fort Thwart is a go!"

The two had hardly stood up when the ground beneath them rumbled deeply. It only lasted a few seconds, but something had changed in the atmosphere. Soon, things began changing in the biosphere, as the bushes spontaneously began growing rapidly, developing thorns and transforming into nettles that threatened to ensnare the two teenagers.

"I think the fort is thwarting us, Marinette!" Max exclaimed as they scrambled onto the road. The sky was darkening as the trees grew taller and their foliage spread out to block the sunlight.

"Our best course of action is to flee to the fort, where they can protect us!" Markov informed, his face now a red exclamation point.

"It's got to be an akuma! But all the way out-AAH!"

She nearly tripped as fissures opened up in the concrete, roots creeping up through the cracks and pulling the manmade infrastructure apart. The unstable terrain separated her from Max, with him closer to the fort.

"Marinette, hurry!"

"Go without me! I'll be fine!"

"0% chance! You don't abandon us, and we won't abandon you!"

Unfortunately, the choice was made for him as the roots evolved upwards, forming irregular spiky walls that prevented them from reaching other. They were soon blocked from sight, and that's when Marinette opened her purse. A very irritated-looking Tikki flew up to her eye level.

"Were you seriously just convinced to aid in a scheme to break into a military base?"

"Look, I… it was just hypothetical! And we have bigger problems right now!"

Tikki gave her another unimpressed look that said this conversation wasn't over.

"Tikki, spots on! Haa!" With her spotted costume spread over her arms, body, and legs, Ladybug became a creature of the forest, just as magical as the environment that had appeared around her.  
  


Even with the souped-up capabilities granted by her transformation, Ladybug had to be careful treading through the massive undergrowth of the forest, which was a place unlike any she had encountered before. Sure, she had _seen_ fantastic forests of this kind in video games and movies, but it was an entirely different experience to be _in_ one. This wasn't an action-packed level with the forest as a backdrop. It was a three-dimensional maze of brambles, exotic bushes, and oversized trees that took not just skill but also precision to navigate her way through. She had climbed onto a huge branch near the top of one of the massive trees to chart a path, but it was still hard to make out any of the park's layout due to how thick the canopy coverage was.

One landmark remained quite visible, because it loomed over the entirety of the landscape. In the center of the park was a building-sized tree that scraped the clouds, easily rivalling the Eiffel Tower in scale. It was essentially a giant beacon for the location of the akumatized villain. Before she set off, she made a quick call to prepare herself for the fight ahead. There was a certain someone she needed to find too, after all.

Unfortunately, the phone rang out with no response from the Chaton. _I hope this forest didn't have the same magical interference that Weredad's beanstalk prison did,_ she fretted. Pulling up the GPS seemed to work fine, and it looked to be the only sort of navigation the heroine would have for this scenario. Too bad its magic powers didn't also chart the changes the akuma had made; none of the paths marked on the map likely existed anymore. From the looks of it, the tree tower was right where Allée Royale ended in a big circle. Quickly, she texted her partner to tell him to meet her there.

Hopping down from her perch, Ladybug slid all the way down the tree trunk, landing on a glowing, oversized mushroom. It trampolined her forward onto the ground, where she used the momentum to continue jumping through the nettled gaps between the trees.

The travel time gave her a chance to plan. Walking right into the enemy base was pretty high on the foolish-decisions list, so she needed to be prepared for whatever was coming. Calling her Lucky Charm right now didn't seem smart when she hadn't even encountered the supervillain yet; knowing her luck, that would proceed to happen while she was de-transformed to recharge Tikki.

What ways did she have to distract the akuma? While she didn't know what had caused someone to claim the entire Bois de Vincennes as their territory, she figured they probably wouldn't like it if it started getting destroyed in a blaze of glory. That plan would also be useful because the smoke signal would be sure to alert Chat Noir to her location.

On the other hand… there were civilians in the park. Setting the area alight would endanger anyone around, and they definitely had no way to escape with the state the ground level was in. Her Miraculous Cure could restore any physical damage caused, but as far as she knew, it didn't wipe their memories if the akuma didn't have a mental influence on them. (It wasn't exactly a conversation one could just have with a friend who had been akumatized, even if that was _all_ of her friends, minus Adrien.) That meant people would remember getting burned alive, and maybe even who did it.

Fire wouldn't do as a solution, then. She really wished Chat would show up already to help contribute. Another call, another, _"Cat got your tongue?" Sigh… I should remember to make fun of him for that voicemail message someday._

* * *

On the opposite side of the city, a small crew had set up alongside Lac Inférieur in the Bois de Boulogne, across from the open field of Pelouse de la Muette that offered a view straight into the heart of the Paris cityscape, with the Eiffel Tower at its front. Their lights and camera were trained on two teenage models, one a boy with matted blond hair, and the other a girl with silky red hair down to her torso.

"Alright, you two, let's take five minutes and start fresh with the next outfits!" the photographer, Vincent, announced.

Adrien sighed, removing his round-topped hat and going to lean against the sole tree between the lake and the lawn.

"Is something the matter, Adrien?" Lila asked in her usual sweet tone, approaching him from the same direction.

 _Yes, and I'm looking at her,_ he thought, hiding the malice behind his model game face.

"Just tired. Might be the weather getting me down."

"You know you can count on me to cheer you up," she promised, getting close and attempting to hook her arm through his.

He resisted, shifting himself to cause her to miss. "Didn't I tell you to stop doing that? I'm dating _Kagami_ , not you. You've already caused enough trouble when you got her akumatized over this."

"I'm sorry that she felt entitled to your affection. I'm just trying to be a supportive friend, is all. Intimacy doesn't necessarily have to be romantic, you know."

"Sure, but you've made it clear that you see me in a romantic way, so I know you're lying."

The Italian girl scowled at that, but he wasn't done yet.

"I seriously don't know what your plan is here. Do you really think you can force me into a relationship by manipulating me and trying to drive off my friends?"

Her look transformed once more into one of hurt. "That's so harsh! I don't know why you would say such things about me. I might have to report to your father that his own son is making me uncomfortable on the job and unable to fully complete my duties as a model under his contract."

Now Adrien was _furious_ , which Lila seemed to have read as she quickly reverted to a smile that rivalled the Cheshire Cat; however, her threat was legitimate, so he forced those feelings down. He could practically feel it in his Miraculous, as if it could hear his desire to transform into Chat Noir and escape. Well, Plagg could actually hear him, but he didn't know if a kwami interacted with its miraculous like that.

Simultaneous buzzing in the two teens' pockets might have provided just the answer he needed. He pulled out his phone and saw that it was indeed an akuma alert, located in…

"The Bois de Vincennes? All of my fr–our friends are there today! C'mon, we have to go help!"

"Adrien, are you **CRAZY?!** " Lila shouted, projecting her voice well more than was necessary, while also forming a death grip on his arm to keep him from going.

He looked back at her, no longer hiding the anger on his face, but he could see Vincent already rushing over to see what was going on. Lila must have gotten his attention.

"Adrien, what appears to be the matter?" the photographer asked innocently.

"He's worried about the akuma because our friends are near it," Lila answered for him, her tone now sounding distraught. "I am, too, and that's why I ask you earnestly to stay here, Adrien. I don't do well with situations like these, so I need your support if we're to continue the photo shoot. The akuma won't affect us from the other side of the city, and I'm way too busy to postpone it. And a good model should be able to keep a straight face for the camera no matter what, right?"

The blonde didn't buy a word of it, but she had clearly earned Vincent's sympathy. "I agree with Miss Ita-Lila-na. The shoot must go on. There's nothing we can do anyway; the alert says the park's perimeter has been blocked off by the akuma. Ladybug and Chat Noir are surely capable enough on their own to handle it."

 _And that's why I need to go!_ Adrien fumed. _Ladybug's counting on me! I can't let her down like this…_

As they returned to the shooting site, he tried brainstorming some excuses to leave. But he found that all he could think about is how bad the consequences for bailing could be.

* * *

Finally, Ladybug reached a clearing, or at least it was clear relative to the density of the rest of the forest. The source was, of course, the colossal tree that occupied most of the area, with any open air around it being the result of its leglike roots that arched over the ground in a near-perfect circle.

"Welcome, Ladybug," a two-tone voice greeted from seemingly all around. Along with a normal-sounding male voice, there was a booming undertone that felt as if the earth itself was speaking. It put the heroine on edge, and she brought out her yo-yo shield to ready herself for a battle.

"Show yourself!" she responded.

The ground in front of her rumbled, and then a pair of spectral green hands around half her size emerged from the ground, attached to noodle-y sprouts that were just enough like arms to creep her out. They scooped up the dirt and morphed it into a male human shape before retreating.

"I should introduce myself. I am called Landover," the human mound spoke. "Are you enjoying this land of wonder I made? It's a quiet fantasy where my reading shan't be disturbed. I find it quite pleasant."

Only confusion was drawn on the heroine's face. "That's it? You transformed this entire forest just so you could have a place to read?" Her eyes scanned the facsimile for any sign of a source of power. She doubted this was Landover's true form – the closest Hawk Moth had gotten to a formless akuma was Style Queen being made of gold dust, but even then, she was human-shaped by default and had to will herself to become a dust cloud. And she didn't have those eerie hands shaping her from the dust, either.

"I wasn't able to read _anywhere_ with those _brats_ running around the park!" Landover shouted angrily, the deep undertone rattling the ground a little. "I'm told you plan on disturbing me, too. Is that true?"

"You can't just claim a public park for yourself and trap everyone inside like this!"

"Fine. Be that way."

The rattling intensified, but it wasn't from his voice; in fact, the dirt double collapsed on the spot. Instead, several of the energy hands popped up around Ladybug, and she pulled herself into a tree branch with her yo-yo to escape their attempt to grab her. The branch proceeded to grow a cluster of smaller twigs around her to try and imprison her within their tangle, but she was one step ahead still and dove out into the clearing. She kept running towards the enormous tree as large numbers of hands sprouted up to capture her, searching for some way to climb or infiltrate it. That's how it worked in the stories, right?

No such luck appeared before her, unless it was hidden deep within the burrows of the roots. Since that would leave her vulnerable to both the hands from the ground and the spontaneous plant growth, it would be very risky without a source of light. If only her darned partner was here, because then they could baton-evator to the top in a matter of seconds, or he could just destroy the whole plant with a Cataclysm. _Chat… where are you?_

Looking at her yo-yo with a frown, she realized she didn't have any other choices. She did wait until she encountered the akuma, like she wanted…  
  


"Lucky Charm!" she shouted, throwing her yo-yo into the air to exude a multitude of hearts. The hearts formed together into a packet containing black-spotted red trapezoids, which then fell into Ladybug's hands.  
  


"Disposable blades? They're a bit small for these plants…" _by themselves._ Her yoyo… she had a plan, but it wasn't the right time, as she had also just thought of another way up the tree. She was going to have to work very quickly, unless she could make a distraction.

The first step was getting up there. She wound up her yoyo while jumping onto the big roots, then threw it as hard as she could around the tree. It wasn't a surprise when the yo-yo flew around the other side and into her other hand; it had circled multiple national monuments before, so she didn't expect this to be any different. Her real concern was tested when she gave both ends of the yo-yo string an experimental pull, seeing if it would hold or start cutting through the wood and destroying the tree the same way it did said national monuments.

There were no sounds of snapping bark and the line felt steady, so the bug-themed heroine began climbing the tree in leaps. It was effectively a partnerless belay, using the tension of the yo-yo string to hold her against the tree in between her jumps.

It was simple, except that Landover could still sense her against his tree. Thorny branches spontaneously grew above her path, forcing her to adapt to the side. Just when she thought she could clear the distance enough to reach the branches, her yo-yo string didn't go up with her when she jumped, resulting in her tripping vertically onto the face of the tree. Further vines began to grow at her limbs, and she made a split-second gamble on what had happened by releasing the main yo-yo and jumping to the side off the tree.

Her assumption paid off, as instead of falling, the string caught, and she swung around to the other side where she could see that the bark had been made to grow over the string to trap it. Shifting her weight, Ladybug landed against the tree below the anchor point and climbed up as fast as she could to get to it, meeting the yo-yo as it raveled around and got caught. She pulled the yo-yo out of contact with the bark to prevent the same fate, then rapidly tore open the packet of blades. She slotted each one in turn into the gap between the yo-yo halves, except for one that she used to scrape the bark off of the string.

In the split second before gravity had taken her very far, she threw her newly-fashioned buzzsaw up to the lowest of the tree's branches, where it looped around like normal and hooked in for extra measure. Tugging the string pulled her up to the branch, where she could finally catch her breath, also making sure her contraption wasn't at risk of falling apart.

Strangely, the tree didn't narrow as she ascended towards the top. When she reached the apex, she saw that it was really more like a giant rook piece from chess, with the top being open, and also covered in thorns. It was time for test number two, and she spun up the yo-yo and threw it in a hook. The saw-yo swept through the thorns with ease, opening an avenue for her to jump onto the rim and avoid the continuing attacks where she was. The plants may be many, but they were limited in their growth time.

From the top of the trunk, Ladybug could see inside. It looked somewhat like one would expect from a hollowed-out log, if it was also polished to look like a solid wooden cup holder. Sitting on a matching wooden throne was Landover, the real one, reading a book. Most of him was still a brown color like the dirt copy, but it was dominated by his huge overcoat that was a darker brown, almost like dark chocolate. His skin was a pale green starkly visible in contrast to its surroundings, despite only his face and hands being visible. The face also had a butterfly-shaped mask that was more of a forest green.

Basically, he had a tree-themed costume in his tree base. Not Hawk Moth's best design work. More interesting than the villain himself was his book, which was almost as large as he was and bound in what appeared to be old leather. It was obvious that the akuma was in there, in part because he was reading out of it in an inscrutable language.

Paris' heroine leapt into the heart of the tree, throwing her bladed yo-yo at Landover's book at the same time. The villain, without looking up from his book, jumped out of his chair to avoid the attack, and Ladybug found herself doing the same as the floor grew wooden stakes behind him. While her foe could simply grow a foothold for himself, she had to rappel off of the crest of the trunk with her yo-yo again, which prevented her from using it like she needed.

Such a thing couldn't stop her, of course. She kicked off the wall such that she rebound right to where Landover was, threatening to stomp him and the book into the wall if he didn't move. _Un_ growing the plants didn't appear to be in his repertoire, so she was able to claim the foothold for herself and finally finish this fight in the home-grown arena.

With no floor, having to grow his perches in advance, and holding no direct weapons, Landover had grown himself into a corner. Ladybug had expected his magic hands to appear, but she guessed now that they were tied to the actual ground for his terraforming. Again, not the best work.

Not that she minded, since it made it pretty easy for her to overpower him. In less than thirty seconds, she made the final strike, hooking around his book with the bladed yo-yo and tearing it even as she yanked to bring it to her.  
  


"No more evildoing for you, little akuma," Ladybug said, opening her yo-yo like a ladybug opens its wings to the glowing white compartment within, which caused the disposable blades to fall out into her hands. She swung the yo-yo in a circle to charge up her throw.

"Time to de-evilize!"

The yo-yo caught the akuma in one swoop, closing up to perform its magic purification.

"Gotcha!"

She opened the compartment again, and a regular white butterfly flew up and away. "Bye-bye, little butterfly!"

Next, she grabbed tossed the blades into the air as well.

"Miraculous Ladybug!"

They burst into a swarm of ladybugs, which actually stayed together. The tree around them was eaten up as if the magical insects were termites, and they spiraled out to deforest the entire Bois de Vincenne back to its normal self.

A dark substance covered Landover and dissolved into the ground, leaving the boy with the coat on the ground. He looked around confusedly, before seeing his restored-to-normal book and scrambling to it.

"Pound it…" Ladybug said quietly, frowning at the lack of partner to share the victory with.

* * *

Hawk Moth shook his head from his place in his observatory. "Even without Chat Noir, that was pathetic. I expected better from someone who spends so much time reading about magic and fights in fantasy books. With the whole park at his disposal…" he slammed his cane into the ground in frustration.

"No matter. These akumas were mere placeholders while I worked on the Peacock Miraculous. The real fun hasn't even started yet."

The silver-masked mastermind turned away from the window, the light from it shrinking as the lens closed back in until it was completely filled with darkness.

* * *

Ladybug landed down on the walking path of Allée Royale, setting down the brown-haired man whom she had carried there bridal-style.

"What an honor, getting a lift from Ladybug," he commented, turning to shake her hand. "My name's Hector Écriteur, by the way. It's quite a pleasure to meet you in-person."

The heroine did not share the same opinion of him, though she didn't let it show on her face. "Yeah… Listen, I gotta go before I transform back. This is kind of far from my usual stomping grounds, you know? Bug out." She left quickly afterward.

Her spaced out response was also because her brain was preoccupied with other matters. Beyond Chat's failure to help, she considered that there were no less than three people in the park with her who had wielded miraculouses in the past. In a hypothetical universe where she didn't care about their identities being known to Hawk Moth and entrusted them with those miraculouses to keep, they would have been available in his stead. She may have pulled through this time, but was this something she needed to prepare for in the future? Was there a legitimate reason why Chat didn't make it? Had she taken for granted Chat's ability to reach every akuma fight?

"Spots off," she commanded, her superpowers dropping as her tired kwami re-appeared in her hand. She fetched a cookie for the godly little being and switched gears mentally. The only way to answer her questions would be to ask Chat himself the next time they met. Right now, she needed to be Marinette and try to enjoy the remainder of the day with her friends.

Maybe this time, she wouldn't let herself get roped into breaking national laws.


	6. Meet the Miraculouses: Stompp

In her effort to familiarize herself with the miraculouses, Marinette was going to spend time with one kwami each night. It would be good for them to get out of the Miracle Box and see the modern world, and they could tell her about their powers. Tonight, she decided she would wear the Ox Miraculous. As she adorned the nose ring, a sparkling blue light appeared and transformed into the bull-like kwami Stompp.

"Oh, Marinette! It's a pleasure to see you. Am I needed?"

"Not tonight, at least not for a transformation. I did want to ask you about the powers of your miraculous, though. What exactly does it mean to be the kwami of action?"

"What it means… well, think about the semantics of the word 'act'. Acting in a role is performing the responsibilities of it. A force acts upon an object. You act upon an impulse."

"Hey, no need to get personal…" Marinette joked, at least partially.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. Another appropriate word is 'work'. One's work is their job, what they do to make a living. Work is the physics term for applying energy to an object through motion. You work towards a goal. All of these definitions encompass the reality that there must be physical effort in order to make change. You can plan and think and feel all you want, but it amounts to nothing without action. That is what I am."

"Hmm… that's an interesting way to describe the world…" the girl pondered, thinking deeply about it.

"What do you mean?" the kwami asked, his tone one of inquisition.

"Well, in civic education, we learned that laws exist to protect people's rights. In theory, breaking the law means you've violated someone's rights, and that results in some kind of punishment as a way to bring justice. The only thing that matters, in this case, is that your actions broke the law. It doesn't matter if you had good _intentions_ , or if the actions actually created a good outcome in the end. It sounds similar to what you described, but I don't know if I like that or not."

"Why is that? It's a reasonable connection to make."

Marinette grew a determined look on her face. "Because I believe in the goodness in people's hearts. I think that good intentions _should_ matter, because what we plan and think and feel make up who we _are_ , and that matters more to me than what we _do_. I mean, bad people can do good things, but that doesn't make them good, does it?"

"Think of the meaning of the word 'matters'. Matter is the physical substance that makes up our universe. Effectively, it defines what _is_ : that is, what does and does not exist as an entity in reality. When something _matters_ , you can think of it as being physical; it has a real effect on the physical space in which we all live. So, to play devil's advocate, why shouldn't it make them good? Their good deeds have a positive effect on society, contributing to it rather than taking away, regardless of whether they want them to or enjoy when they do. We cannot even know for certain whether those bad thoughts reflect who they truly are, even if they claim that they do, because the only person who can truly know someone's inner desires is their own self. But now we're encroaching on Roaar's territory, and I believe she has already spoken to you on this subject.

"Something that you probably already know is that the Miraculouses don't change who one is, they change what one can do. The beauty of them is that having these powers, in turn, often catalyzes the personal change, as the wielder comes to understand the philosophy and responsibility that their miraculous is formed around. Where my miraculous comes into play is for those who do not know how to distinguish between 'is' and 'does', even within themselves."

"I see. That makes it harder to figure out who would benefit the most from it." The heroine thought for a moment. "I think, if I were to give it to someone, I would want the kind of person who is kind and thoughtful, but has trouble expressing their motives outwardly. The Ox Miraculous would empower them to transform their good intentions into action.

"The issue is identifying those intentions when they're not being expressed correctly, because the opposite could be true… The last thing I'd want is for one of those bad people who do good things to decide to use the miraculous to enact their selfish thoughts."

Stompp nodded in agreement. "Very perceptive, Guardian. The Ox is one of the least used miraculouses for this reason. It is very simple to do wrong with it, and unlike the Black Cat, there is no Ladybug to balance it out. The opposite of action is inaction, and nothing results from inaction."

"Right. 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.' That's important to me as a Ladybug, and I'm certainly not going to discount any possibility when it comes to fighting Hawk Moth. For that, I need to know how to use your miraculous."

"That is simple. To activate the transformation, say the words, 'Stompp, charge forward.' To de-transform, say 'Hold back.' While transformed, you are granted a miraculous gauntlet that grants strength, durability, and size to one of your fists."

"Size? So it's like a giant boxing glove? That sounds so cool!"

"It's better than a glove, because you still retain use of all of your fingers. Additionally, the gauntlet is how your channel the miraculous's power. Say the word, 'Labor', and you shall be able to lift anything you want. _Anything._ The Eiffel Tower? Not a problem. A full-length train? Can do. The pure strength of action is at your command."

"Wow, that's impressive. Hawk Moth's akumas typically have the power advantage over us, but this miraculous could balance the scales."

"Indeed. I look forward to working with whomever has been chosen."

"Anyway, that was all I wanted to talk about tonight. Maybe in the future, we could go for a walk, if I can figure out a safe way to do it."

"That sounds like it would be excellent. Until then, adieu, Marinette."

With that, she removed the miraculous and returned it to the Miracle Box, before storing it away in its secret hiding place at the bottom of her chest.

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: I tried to mimic the show's setpieces (Lucky Charm, de-evilize, etc...) as exactly as possible, but I don't know if it reads effectively or if it just looks awkward. What do you think?


End file.
